RSS backed organisations have asked to be informed about the procedure to set up committees for reviewing the syllabus in Rajasthan. By applying Right to Information (RTI), they demanded to know if the reviewing was done in a transparent and fair manner.
The Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) has affiliated educational bodies who have asked the Congress-led Rajasthan government to inform them regarding the “downsizing portrayal of right wing leaders” in the textbooks which according to them have been done by defying the norms.
The majority party has been accused by The Congress for saffronisation of school education and distorting history.
Former education minister Vasudev Devnani and several other BJP leaders have criticised Rajasthan’s government “to dilute references to right wing ideologues such as VD Savarkar and Deen Dayal Upadhayay”.
The controversy was sparked when drafts of the new textbooks showed the prefix Veer removed from Savarkar’s name. He was also referred to as one who “plotted the assassination” of Mahatma Gandhi in spite of being exonerated by a court and granted clemency from the British government.
New textbooks also have omitted chapters on Deen Dayal Upadhyay and welfare schemes by PM Narendra Modi’s government.
“The RSS forced its ideology in the syllabus and glorified people such as Savarkar who made no contribution in the independence struggle,” claimed Education minister Govind Singh Dotasara. According to him, this was an attempt to correct history “distorted by the Bharatiya Janata Party.”
Rajasthan Shikshak Sangh (Rashtriya), Rajasthan University and College Teachers’ Association (Rashtriya), Shiksha Sanskriti Utthan Nyas, Adarsh Vidya Mandir and Bharatiya Shikshan Mandal are some RSS-backed organisations that have filed several RTIs with the secretary of the Education Department, the Rajasthan Board of Secondary Education (RBSE), Ajmer and the State Institute of Educational Research and Training (SIERT), Udaipur.
“The government is not sharing any details about the syllabus change. It seems they have not followed the laid down procedures,” said BL Natiya, national vice president of the Bharatiya Shikshan Mandal.
“The post of RBSE chairman is vacant as the earlier head has completed his three-year tenure and no new appointment has been made. So, who gave the order to set up the committee?” asked former RBSE chairman Vimal Prasad Agarwal.
