Author: Statesman News Service
Publication: The Statesman
Date: October 9, 2001
Better late than never.
The deputy leader of the Bharatiya
Janata Party and former education minister, Dr Harshavardhan, today criticised
the controversial portion in certain NCERT textbooks which hurt the religious
sentiments of the Jains and Sikhs.
However, a number of BJP leaders
said that perhaps, the reaction came a bit too late as the union human
resource development minister, Dr Murli Manohar Joshi, has already ordered
to have these taken out from the textbooks.
The issue was raised by Congress
legislator, Mr Arvinder Singh Lovely, in the monsoon session of Delhi Assembly.
He had quoted from the NCERT's history
textbooks of Class 11 alleging that they contained derogatory remarks about
Sikh gurus and Join Tirthankaras.
This had created a furore in the
Assembly and later in various quarters as a demand for banning such textbooks
gained momentum.
The former education minister, Dr
Harshavardhan today, said that he wanted to set the record straight as
the BJP members had been expelled earlier during the day from the House
and hence they were not present in the House during the debate. We could
not put forward our views on this issue that day, he added.
He condemned remarks made by certain
Congress legislators against the founder of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
Dr KB Hedgewar and the union minister for HRD.
The deputy leader of the BJP however
failed to give a convincing reply about what the erstwhile BJP government
had done in this regard and how it was that nobody noticed that such texts
were taught in the schools.
Dr Harshavardhan had a standard
reply for all such queries that the BJP has been demanding that these textbooks
present a distorted view of history and they should be changed.
However, according to senior BJP
leaders, attempts to rake up the issue by the former minister might not
cut much ice even with his colleagues within the party as his senior in
the party, the national vice-president, Mr Madan Lal Khurana, had already
taken up this issue with Dr Joshi.
Mr Khurana had even issued a statement
a few days ago that in response to his letter on this issue, the minister
had assured him that such controversial portions will be taken off these
textbooks.
Meanwhile, the lieutenant governor,
Mr Vijai Kapoor, has directed the Delhi government to immediately withdraw
the controversial portions on Sikh gurus in a class XI history book.
Mr Kapoor has also said that till
these portions are removed, the teachers in schools in Delhi should not
teach them to the students.
