Refuting allegations made by the Bharatiya Janata Party that revision of school textbooks is being done to promote “Ahinda and Leftist agendas”, writer and head of the textbook revision committee Baragur Ramachandrappa has said that the books were being revised “keeping in mind constitutional principals, and not to appease any [political] party.”
How do you react to the BJP’s claim that the textbooks were being revised to promote Siddaramaiah’s Ahinda ideology?
The counter for saffronisation is not “congressisation”. There has been no scope to push any party’s agenda. There has been no scope for any party’s agenda — be it the Congress, BJP or the Communist parties — to be reflected in the textbooks. If there was pressure from any party, I would not work in this post. The books have been revised keeping in mind the constitutional principals and the National Curriculum Framework 2005. We have revised the textbooks based on complaints received and these complaints were not only about allegations of saffronisation but also about factual errors in certain subjects.
The BJP has also alleged that no public consultation was done before going ahead with the revision. How do you react?
We conducted several meetings and consultations with the stakeholders. In fact, we had circulated questionnaires to teachers through teachers’ association and sought their opinion and feedback. I have conducted at least 30 meetings that were attended by writers, scientists and several other stakeholders. We have also taken into account letters written to the Education Minister by several BJP leaders such as Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri and Ganesh Karnik.
There are fears that there has been a delay and it might result in books not reaching schools in time. Do you agree?
We have done this process in a year and there has been no delay. Our revision was complete more than a month ago and what we are essentially doing now is translation of the books. We have made corrections and changes to around 15 to 20 per cent of the content of the books. I will submit the new books by January 15.
