Govt. denies attempt to rewrite history

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, NOV. 26. The Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Mr. Pramod Mahajan, today termed the controversy over the circular and the Opposition walkout as ``very unfortunate'' and maintained that there had been no attempt to ``rewrite history.''

``There has not been any tampering with the books... only some objectionable portions have been deleted to restore the glory of the Sikh Guru, Tegh Bahadur. There is no question of withdrawing the circular,'' Mr. Mahajan told the Lok Sabha, responding to an impromptu discussion during zero hour.

Mr. Mahajan said the Opposition had not been able to give any proof to justify its allegation. He wanted to know if school children should be taught that Guru Tegh Bahadur was a ``murderer'' and that Jats, who had founded the State of Bharatpur, were ``plunderers.''

There could not be any ``final word'' on many controversial subjects in history as there was more than one version. The Education Ministry had set up a committee to look into it. The deletions in the textbooks had been ordered after the Delhi Assembly unanimously passed a resolution to this effect recently, Mr. Mahajan said.

The Samajwadi Party, the Congress, the RJD and the Left appeared dissatisfied with Mr. Mahajan and staged a walkout.

`Akin to Taliban'

Earlier, the Opposition benches protested the deletion and alleged that it was done at the behest of the Sangh Parivar. Raising the issue, Mr. Suresh Kurup (CPI-M), said the textbooks had been altered at the instance of the Sangh Parivar. He was supported by the members of the Congress, the Left parties, the Samajwadi Party and the Rashtriya Janata Dal. Mr. Mulayam Singh Yadav of the SP said the BJP was doing what the Taliban was doing in Afghanistan.

Mr. Somnath Chatterjee (CPI-M) said the move was ``diabolical'' and a deliberate attempt at tampering with history. ``This is amazing, you cannot impose it like this on the children... it shows a particular state of mind. They are obscurantist and fundamentalist people,'' he said, pointing to the ruling party benches. He also criticised the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, for supporting the move to ``change'' history.

The NCERT circular was defended by the BJP members, Mr. Vijay Kumar Malhotra and Mr. Sahib Singh Verma, who said ``wrong teaching'' should not be imparted to the school children.

Mr. Malhotra said the portions that had been deleted were highly derogatory to the Sikh Guru, Tegh Bahadur, the Jat community, the Aryans and the Jain community.

Though the Congress Deputy Leader, Mr. Shivraj Patil, did not criticise the deletion of the derogatory references and objectionable portions, he protested the way in which it had been done. ``There should be a proper system of doing it. It should not aim at dividing the society.'' Recalling the controversy in Rajasthan over the removal of certain objectionable portions in textbooks, he said ``when the Congress came to power in Rajasthan, it set up a committee and on the basis of the report, ordered the removal of such portions.''

The former Prime Minister, Mr. Chandra Shekhar, felt that school children should not be taught what should be studied by research scholars. The Trinamool Congress leader, Ms. Mamata Banerjee, objected to the use of the word ``Taliban'' in the House and wanted the Education Minister to clarify the current controversy.

In the Rajya Sabha, the CPI(M) member, Mr. Nilotpal Basu, criticised the NCERT chairman, Prof. J.S. Rajput, for taking a ``partisan view'' of the deletions in the textbooks. He charged Prof. Rajput with following the RSS opinion on the issue.

Later, addressing a press conference, Mr. Malhotra criticised the Congress walkout, saying the party was trying to come close to the SP because of the coming Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls. Expressing ``surprise'' over the walkout, Mr. Malhotra said it smacked of double standards as it was the Congress Government in Delhi which had unanimously recommended the deletion of certain portions referring to Guru Tegh Bahadur.

The Congress spokesman, Mr. Anand Sharma, had a hard time trying to make amends for the stand taken by Mr. Patil in the Lok Sabha. What Mr. Patil meant was if a deletion had to be made, it should be done by an independent committee of historians and not by the Government, Mr. Sharma said.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Front Page
Previous : India to boycott Denness
Next     : Quattrocchi in court