Congress to protest against Karnataka textbook revision on June 9 in Bengaluru
India Today
The Karnataka Congress unit will stage a protest against the revision of textbooks in Bengaluru in Vidhan Soudha on June 9, Thursday. The protest will start from 10 am and all MLAs will take part in the agitation.
Amid the escalating controversy over the revision of textbooks in Karnataka, the opposition party Congress has called a protest in Vidhana Soudha at 10 am on June 9, Thursday. All the lawmakers of the Congress party are slated to take part in the protest amid allegations that the BJP government was trying to saffronise education in the state. The Karnataka government had been engulfed in a raging controversy after the textbook review committee included a lesson on RSS founder Keshav Baliram Hedgewar's speech in school books. The committee also allegedly omitted chapters on freedom fighters, social reformers and literary figures.
A row has erupted in the state over the revised textbooks with the Congress, activists and lawyers alleging that this is an attempt by the state government to saffronise the education. Lingayat seers also wrote a letter to Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, urging him to correct the wrong description of social reformer Basavanna in textbooks.
The Congress has intensified its demands to withdraw all school textbooks from circulation. DK Shivakumar, the president of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC), said that all seers have also spoken against the state government on the revised textbooks.
"Congress bows down before them and we'll join our voices with them. Authors and seers don't want any politics," he said.
Basavalinga Pattadevaru, the President of the Lingayat Mutts Union, Sanehalli Seer Panditaradhya Shivacharya Swamiji, writers, activists and mutts had raised objections to the review committee’s actions. The seers also warned of a state-wide agitation against the government if it failed to revise the lesson containing wrong information about social reformer Basavanna in social science textbooks.
Meanwhile, Karnataka Education Minister BC Nagesh told ANI, "The aim of Congress is not the textbook, but to politicise the issue for elections. For the last 65 years, they were teaching false things to the students." (sic)
