Condemning what he called distortion of history and saffronisation of education by the Rohit Chakrathirtha-headed textbook revision committee, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) spokesperson and Chittapur MLA Priyank Kharge called upon the people to participate in the 24-hour agitation from 10 a.m. on Wednesday in Kalaburagi.
Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, he said that the call for the agitation given by like-minded organisations and individuals is to demand withdrawal of revised textbooks by the government and safeguard the very identity of Karnataka.
“In the name of textbook revision, the committee has attempted to saffronise education. It has insulted all the major communities in the State by distorting their histories. It has inserted objectionable content to downplay the contributions made by great personalities such as Basavanna, Ambedkar and Kuvempu. Teaching such content which is full of communal poison would destroy the future of the children and the country at large. As part of the ongoing agitations across the State demanding the withdrawal of the revised textbooks, we, like-minded organisations and individuals, have planned a day-and-night agitation starting from 10 a.m. on Wednesday. I appealed to the people, especially the parents of the school-going children to participate in the agitation,” Mr. Priyank said.
Responding to a query, the former minister made it clear that he has opposed not to the very idea of textbook revision but to the distortion of history in the name of textbook revision.
“The textbooks should essentially be revised from time to time for incorporating the new discoveries and developments in society. Such a progressive revision would help young minds to get newer knowledge and place them in an advanced position. But, misrepresenting the history to suit their ideology cannot be accepted. Rohit Chakrathirtha-headed committee showed all those who resisted the evils of Sanatana Dharma in a bad light. It projected Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism as the branches of Hinduism which is not fact,” Mr. Priyank said.
He demanded that the government needs to completely withdraw the revised textbooks and continue the old textbooks for the current year and plan for proper revision of textbooks for the next year.
“The very purpose of textbook revision by the BJP government was to infuse the communal poison to the young minds and create a communally-charged cadre force for right-wing organisations. It is with this force that the right-wing organisations spread hate among people and trigger communal tensions in the society,” he said.
He also questioned the very process of textbook revision by stating that the Rohit Chakrathirtha-headed committee revised the textbooks without the government order.
