‘RSS-driven exercise full of mischief’: Congress slams rewriting of textbooks amid NCERT row
The opposition party’s claim comes after the Supreme Court on Thursday imposed a “total ban” on the Class 8 NCERT book, which contains a chapter on corruption in the judiciary, and ordered the seizure of all copies, physical and digital.
Jairam Ramesh, Congress general secretary in charge of communications, said in a post on
“In fact, the way NCERT textbooks have been rewritten in the last decade is not only dangerous but also shameful. It is an RSS-driven practice, full of mischief and evil. It is this racket that needs to be investigated,” he said.
The three-judge bench, comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi, issued show cause notices to the NCERT director and the secretary of the school education department and asked them to explain why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against those responsible.
The bench had taken suo motu notice of the “objectionable” statements regarding the judiciary in the new textbook after senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Singhvi stated that the matter needed urgent consideration.
NCERT (National Council of Educational Research and Training) social science textbook for class 8 says corruption, large backlog of cases and lack of sufficient number of judges are among the challenges faced by the judicial system. Following the Supreme Court’s harsh words that it would not allow “anyone in the world” to undermine the integrity of the judiciary, NCERT pulled the textbook from its website; sources said the government was angered by controversial references in the syllabus.
NCERT on Wednesday also apologized for “inappropriate content” after facing the Supreme Court’s ire over this chapter and said the relevant book would be rewritten in consultation with appropriate authorities. PTI
