Stating that the revised syllabus formatted under the BJP-led State Government is based on RSS agenda, the Dalit Sangharsh Samiti Maha Okkoota has demanded that the textbook review committee headed by Rohit Chakrathirtha be scrapped.
State convenors of the okkoota Arjun Bhadre and Mariyappa Halli, addressing a press conference here on Thursday, said that Baragur Ramachandrappa who chaired the previous committee overseeing textbook revisions had revised textbooks keeping in mind the Constitutional principles and the National Curriculum Framework 2005. There were 27 expert committees consisting of 172 subject experts and academics.
But the appointment of the new textbook review committee is unscientific and it does not follow the guidelines of the National Curriculum Framework 2005, Mr. Bhadre said.
Committee chairperson [Mr. Chakrathirtha] is not an academic, he said and added that people affiliated to a particular ideology should not be part of the textbook review committee.
The committee has omitted content by progressive writers such as P. Lankesh, Arvind Malagatti, Sara Aboobakar, L. Basavaraju, K. Neela and B.T. Lalitha Naik. And, it has included writings of S.L. Bhyrappa, K.B. Hedgewar, Gajanan Sharma, N. Ranganath Sharma, Sushrutha Dodderi, S.V. Parameshwara Bhat, Ganesh Shatavadhani, Bannanje Govindacharya and Shivananda Kalave.
Mr. Bhadre said that seven persons appointed as members of the revision committee belonged to the same community and the same ideology as that of the RSS.
The okkoota also accused Minister for Primary and Secondary Education B.C. Nagesh of saffronising education and demanded his resignation.
