Textbook row: Govt. propagating a pack of lies, says Siddaramaiah

Bengaluru

Leader of the Opposition and former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday said the BJP government in Karnataka was telling a “series of lies” on school textbook revision issue and behaving “irresponsibly” in an important and sensitive matter related to children’s education.

This came a day after Revenue Minister R. Ashok held a press conference to claim that the revision done during Mr. Siddaramaiah’s regime earlier was aimed at “minority appeasement” and the revision done now by the committee led by Rohith Chakrathirtha was unnecessarily being targeted by the Opposition and a section of writers.

In his 33-point rebuttal with comparison of additions and deletions, he alleged, “Texts that projected ideals of social justice, equality of genders, inclusivity have been removed and replaced with lessons that put forth the ideology of the BJP and the Sangh Parivar.”

He argued that Mr. Chakrathirtha had no qualification to head the committee and had gone ahead with revisions without following proper procedure or even an official order that gave the mandate for revision.

Countering the allegation that the earlier textbooks, revised during his time by writer Baragur Ramachandrappa, had “insulted” the Wadiyar kings, Kempe Gowda, and others, Mr. Siddaramaiah contended that, on the contrary, it was the revision done by the current regime that had insulted them. “There was no insult meted out to any king or personality who contributed to the building of this State,” he argued. He further alleged that Mr. Chakrathirtha-led committee had removed several lessons on important women icons of Karnataka.

“The revision done by Mr. Chakrathirtha committee seeks to present the vaidika version of history as the only history of the country,” he said, accusing the committee of deliberately distorting history at many places.

Mr. Siddaramaiah has demanded that the textbooks revised during his time be retained since it was done on a “scientific basis” and the government should apologise for “telling a series of lies” on the subject.