The CIC has pulled up NCERT for chopping out content on national leaders like Subhas Chandra Bose and revolutionaries from its textbooks and directed it to suo-moto disclose the reasons behind such de
The CIC has pulled up NCERT for chopping out content on national leaders like Subhas Chandra Bose and revolutionaries from its textbooks and directed it to suo-moto disclose the reasons behind such decisions.
The Commission asked NCERT to disclose why content on Swami Vivekananda was reduced from 1250 to 37 words in Class 12 history books and completely removed from Class 8 books.
The case reached information commissioner Sridhar Acharyulu through a plea of Jaipur-based Surya-pratap Singh Rajawat, who criticised non-inclusion of history of eminent personalities and revolutionaries in the NCERT books.
Through RTI applications and public grievance application, Mr Rajawat claimed that content on 36 national leaders and revolutionaries like, Chandra Shekhar Aza-d, Ashfaqullah Khan, Batukeshwar Dutt, Ram Prasad Bismil, among others, was completely missing from history textbooks of NCERT.
Not getting a satisfactory reply, he approached the transparency panel. During the hearing before the CIC, Mr Rajawat asserted that it was not appropriate to give 37 pages to cricket and history of cloth but nothing on the lives of freedom fighters.
Mr Rajawat submitted a table in which the photos of these great persons were inserted with a tag “not found” in NCERT textbooks. The official representing the NCERT said all the suggestions made by the appellant will be placed before the syllabus revision committee and would implement the committee’s recommendations as given by them.
Professor Neeraj Rashmi, representing NCERT, said they could not interfere with the independent committee which decides the content of lessons and textbooks.
Mr Rajawat claimed that prior to 2007, NCERT books contained 500 words about Netaji in Class 8 and 1250 words in Class 12 textbooks, whereas now in Class 12, only 87 words are given, while in Class 8 his mention is completely missing.
