Kimmane Rathnakar, former Education Minister and Congress leader, announced that the party has decided to take out a padayatra from Kuppalli, the birthplace of poet Kuvempu, in Shivamogga district, seeking withdrawal of revised school textbooks.
He urged the government to scrap textbooks revised by the committee headed by Rohit Chakrathirtha. The committee cannot revise the textbooks from Classes 1 to 10 in a couple of months “by holding meetings in a hotel,” said Mr. Rathnakar. The dates of the padayatra would be announced shortly, he said. He urged the government to continue with the old textbooks and constitute a new committee for the revision of textbooks.
Priyank Kharge, former Minister and MLA, said there was no educationist or scientist in the committee headed by Rohit Chakrathirtha.
Meanwhile, in a series of tweets in Kannada, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said that the content of the revised textbooks was against the spirit of Karnataka, a land that has seen great personalities espousing the cause of social justice, humanism and unity. He said that Congress would not allow textbooks that are against the principles of B.R. Ambedkar, Narayana Guru, Kuvempu, Buddha and Basava to be imposed on students.
