A day after Education Minister Vinod Tawde said there is no obscene language in thesupplementary books meant for students from Class I to V, the Opposition on Thursday alleged that the publication houses were asked to change the language of books overnight.
“The minister is misleading the people. The Education Department was set to distribute the books with language unsuitable for students. Had we not raised the issue, the books would have reached the students in a few days,” said Leader of Opposition in the Assembly, Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil.
Mr. Vikhe-Patil said that after the Opposition exposed the issue, the department asked the publication houses to ‘hide’ the boxes of original books and re-print the books. “The minister has agreed that the books were meant for Kumbh Mela. How can the same publication house bring out two different books with identical name? Who is in this expert committee?” he asked.
Mr. Vikhe-Patil said the list of books on Indian festivals does not include those on Diwali and Eid. “What kind of people are running this department? Don’t they know what are the important festivals in India?”
On Wednesday, Mr. Tawde said the books printed by Bharatiya Vichar Sadhana are different from what it had distributed during Kumbh two years ago. “Books with the same name, written by the same author, and published by the same publication house were distributed two years ago. But the content of the books, which will be given to students, is different. The copy given to the government is not the one Mr. Vikhe-Patil has produced before the media,” said Mr. Tawde. When asked about how the government got a duplicate copy, he said, “That you need to ask the expert committee.”
Referring to a report in The Hindu on the purchase of books on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mr. Vikhe-Pati sought to know the criteria for selecting the books.
