National
Joshi a `textbook terrorist', says Cong.
By Our Special Correspondent
NEW DELHI, JAN. 23. Borrowing from the Human Resource Development Minister, Murli Manohar Joshi's vocabulary, the Congress(I) today described him as a ``textbook terrorist'' who was ``getting the syllabi sprayed with RSS anthrax''.
In a statement issued here today-two days after the National Council of Educational Research and Training released its syllabi for all subjects - the Congress spokesman, Jaipal Reddy, said Dr. Joshi - who has been describing Leftist historians as ``intellectual terrorists'' - would go down in history as a textbook terrorist. ``For him, curriculum preparation is a covert preparation. He works mysteriously and strikes deviously.''
Commenting on the veil of secrecy under which the new curriculum has been prepared and textbooks revised, Mr. Reddy charged the Minister with having the textbooks written by ``shadowy figures''. ``The names of the authors are not made public. Nor are the original authors notified about the changes in their own books. Most importantly, the new curriculum has not been approved by the Central Advisory Board of Education.''
While welcoming NCERT's decision to lessen the load on school children, Mr. Reddy said ``the path of compression is very slippery''. Reiterating the need for transparency in textbook preparation, the Congress is of the view that the ``process of abridgment has apparently been abused for unwanted inclusions and unwanted exclusions''.
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