D.K. Shivakumar, president, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC), has written to Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai demanding him to ‘stop the unconstitutional attack on education’ in the State and immediately annul the textbook revision committee and restore the old textbooks.
In his letter, he lists out some of the objectionable changes made in the new textbooks, including editing lessons on Basavanna, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, removal of lessons by several progressive writers, projecting regionalism as anti-national and including lessons written by many those promoting communalism. Curiously, the letter doesn’t mention the inclusion of a lesson by RSS founder K.B. Hedgewar, which was the first flashpoint of the controversy.
“Several senior writers have withdrawn their texts from the textbooks and several other writers have resigned from government committees in protest against the textbook revision. I request you to take this on priority, annul the textbook revision committee and revert back to old textbooks,” he said.
Senior Congress leader K.R. Ramesh Kumar released a press statement on Tuesday, in which he came down on the nature of textbook revision carried out by the Rohith Chakrathirtha-led committee. The educational qualifications of the chairperson of the committee itself are shrouded in mystery, he said. “This is an attempt to poison young minds. Those behind this effort seem to have chosen young children to twist and rewrite history,” he said.
