NCERT textbook row: Kerala minister slams BJP

Thiruvananthapuram: A day after the NCERT defended its modifying references to Babri Masjid demolition in school textbooks, Kerala Minister M B Rajesh on Monday termed it as a move to communalise all systems of the government and said there was a need to continue the collective fight against such attempts.

Rajesh, a CPI(M) leader, said the BJP-led union government had done similar things in the past 10 years, also claiming that there was no agenda behind their actions.

The present move by the NCERT has proved that despite the BJP's decreased number of seats in the Lok Sabha and the party losing the majority to rule independently, the Sangh Parivar was not ready to withdraw from its extreme communal agendas, the minister for Local Self-Government Department (LSGD) alleged.

"This is a warning to everyone. So, we have to continue the fight against the Sangh Parivar and their efforts to communalise textbooks and all other systems of the government," he told reporters.

Rejecting accusations of saffronisation of school curriculum, NCERT's director had said that references to Gujarat riots and Babri Masjid demolition were modified in school textbooks because teaching about riots "can create violent and depressed citizens".

National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) director Dinesh Prasad Saklani said the tweaks in textbooks are part of annual revision and should not be a subject of hue and cry.

"Why should we teach about riots in school textbooks? We want to create positive citizens not violent and depressed individuals," he had said.

The comments by Saklani come at a time when new textbooks have hit the market with several deletions and changes.

The revised Class 12 political science textbook does not mention the Babri Masjid but refers to it as a "three-domed structure".

It has pruned the Ayodhya section from four to two pages and deleted details from the earlier version.