Times
of India: New Delhi: Monday, 25 January 2016.
Central
Information Commission (CIC) has pulled up NCERT for snipping content on
freedom fighters, including Subhas Chandra Bose, from its textbooks, and
directed it to answer why.
In a terse
order, the commission has asked NCERT to disclose why content on Swami
Vivekananda, for example, was reduced from 1,250 to 37 words in Class XII
history books, and completely removed from the syllabus for Class VIII. The
order also listed 36 revolutionaries who participated in India's freedom
struggle but have been given short shrift in school textbooks.
The directive
followed a series of RTI pleas by Jaipur resident Suryapratap Singh
Rajawat Rajawat, pointing out that 36 national leaders and revolutionaries including
Chandrashekhar Azad, Ashfaqullah Khan, Batukeshwar Dutt, and Ram Prasad Bismil,
among others were completely missing from NCERT's history textbooks. During the
hearing at CIC, he said it was not right to reserve 37 pages for cricket and
the history of fabric at the cost of chapters on our freedom fighters.
The official
representing NCERT said Rajawat's suggestions would be placed before the
syllabus revision committee, adding that NCERT would then implement the
latter's recommendations.
CIC asks why
content on Swami Vivekananda, for example, was reduced from 1,250 to 37 words
in Class XII history books.