Vikhe-Patil: Govt covering up issue of obscene books

Mumbai: Opposition leader Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil has once again raised allegations against the state government over supplementary reading material for school children containing ‘obscene’ language. According to Mr Vikhe-Patil, the state government has taken all books that had controversial content out of circulation in a cover-up bid. 

His allegations comes in the wake of education minister Vinod Tawde clarified that there were two different copies of same book and the one that was going to be distributed in schools was not the one that Mr Vikhe-Patil had produced on Wednesday. 

Mr Vikhe-Patil has also claimed that, according to his information, the state government has threatened the publication house into printing new books within the next four to five days. 

The controversy arises from sexually explicit content found in the books Bal Nachiketa, Bhagwan Ved Vyas and Saradamata meant for children from class 1 to 5.

Slamming the state government, Mr Vikhe-Patil on Wednesday revealed the controversial lines in the books. Mr Tawde, reacting to Mr Vikhe-Patil’s allegations, denied the charges and claimed that the book that the Opposition leader had produced was not the one that would be distributed among students. He has also said that experts would take another look at the books and, if necessary, would be dropped from the list of procurement. 

But, on Thursday Mr Vikhe-Patil again levelled allegation of cheating and lying against Mr Tawde. “He is lying to the state. According my information, the books are the same and were printed for students only. But after this came into focus, the state government has taken all books out of circulation. This is trying an attempt to sweep the issue under the rug,” he said.