BJP to cash in on textbooks row

By Neena Vyas

NEW DELHI, NOV. 27. The ``saffronisation'' of textbooks controversy raised by the Opposition parties has been seized upon by the Bharatiya Janata Party as an encashable electoral issue in the coming Assembly elections. Every effort is being made to emphasise that ``Hindu'', ``Jain'' and ``Sikh'' sentiments would have been irreparably hurt if the ``offending passages'' in the school history texts had not been deleted.

The BJP chief whip, Mr. Vijay Kumar Malhotra, said today that a meeting of party MPs had been called for tomorrow morning to discuss the issue in detail and ask them to ``aggressively'' take up the issue in their constituencies.

It seems the party is preparing to use both the Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance (POTO) and the history textbooks issues as emotive ones for the coming elections, especially in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. It is being admitted by party leaders that both would be used as poll planks. The textbook issue will be used to convey the message that the Opposition wanted retention of passages that were ``anti-Jat'' or ``anti-Jain.'' Clearly, the party is hoping to win the Jats and the Jains over to its side.

Mr. Malhotra criticised the inclusion of passages in textbooks which described some of the Tirthankaras of the Jains as not historical figures but possibly invested to give the new religion a flavour of antiquity.

Party leaders here are arguing their case for a correction of history books not by questioning the veracity of facts presented but ``because people's sentiments would be hurt.''

The party has not responded to questions whether children should or should not be taught the prevalence of the caste system and the practice of untouchability. The BJP has gone to the extent of saying that the history taught to school children should assert the historicity of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.

The party's view is that Mr. P.N. Oak, the ``historian'' who claims the Taj Mahal is a ``Hindu monument''should be given as much weightage as Ms. Romila Thapar or Mr. Irfan Habib.

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