The Left parties on Wednesday accused the government of using the Covid-19 pandemic as an excuse to "advance" its own agenda by deleting sections in the CBSE curriculum dealing with India's plurality.
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Tuesday had notified that it has rationalised by up to 30 percent the syllabus for classes nine to 12 for the academic year 2020-21 to reduce course load on students amid the Covid-19 crisis, after suggestions from various quarters, including parents.
READ: Covid-19: 'Nationalism', 'citizenship', 'demonetisation' among chapters dropped from CBSE syllabus
The Human Resource Development Ministry maintains that the curriculum has been rationalised while retaining core elements.
The board in its syllabus rationalisation exercise has dropped chapters on democracy and diversity, demonetisation, nationalism, secularism, India's relations with its neighbours and growth of local governments in India, among others, as per the updated syllabus.
"Atrocious. Using the pandemic, Modi government is deleting sections dealing with India's diversity, plurality, democracy etc that uphold our Constitutional values from the Higher Secondary syllabus," CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury tweeted.
"All to advance the RSS vision of an exclusivist, theocratic, intolerant, fascistic nation. This is nothing but the destruction of our Constitution. Unacceptable," he said.
The CPI also condemned the syllabus reduction move and said it was a "nefarious attempt to implement the Hindutva agenda of RSS using Covid-19 restrictions in the school syllabus".
"The CPI strongly objects to the move to remove chapters on human rights, social movements, citizenship rights, etc. The party condemns the move to condition the minds of our youth so that fascist poison can be easily injected into them," it said in a statement.
"Ever since the RSS-BJP government came to power, they have been trying to communalise and commercialise education. The present move is part of their hidden agenda towards that purpose. There is already an attempt to centralise education in the name of New Education Policy," the CPI said.
The party demanded an immediate reversal of the move.