‘BJP implementing vision of RSS’: Kerala minister on NCERT textbook row

Commenting on the NCERT textbook row, Kerala Education Minister V Sivankutty on Sunday said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government was implementing the vision of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

Kerala Education Minister V Sivankutty. (Photo: ANI)

By India Today News Desk: Criticising the decision to remove certain chapters and sections from the NCERT textbooks, Kerala Education Minister V Sivankutty on Sunday said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government was implementing the vision of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) recently dropped certain portions on Mahatma Gandhi and how his pursuit of Hindu-Muslim unity “provoked Hindu extremists”, and on a ban on the RSS from its Class 12 history textbook. The omissions provoked a political whirlpool, with the Congress accusing the Centre of “whitewashing” and “distorting” history.

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“The decision to exclude certain key portions from NCERT textbook can’t be the decision of NCERT alone, it can only be seen as the decision of BJP government. They’ve same ideologies as RSS and the BJP is implementing the visions of RSS. It is the same in all sectors including employment, culture and education,” Sivankutty said.

He said, “They (BJP) are arrogant because they have majority in the Parliament. They want to eliminate the portions about the freedom struggle, father of our nation Mahatma Gandhi, Sree Narayana Guru and Bhagat Singh from the history books. And they’re also not ready to include key events like the Gujarat riots in the textbooks.”

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The state minister’s comment came two days after Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, in a Facebook post, moved to remove certain chapters and sections from the NCERT textbooks, which he believed was a political motive. The CPIM leader said the removal of these sections is “objectionable”.