Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president K.S. Alagiri and MDMK founder Vaiko on Tuesday opposed the depiction of Tamil poet Bharathiar with a saffron turban in the Class XII Tamil textbook.
Mr. Alagiri warned of protests if the School Education Minister did not initiate steps to rectify the illustration, though the illustrator contended that he had used the tricolour to depict the national poet.
“Bharathiar has never been depicted wearing a saffron turban all these years. He is always shown to be wearing a white turban only. They have done this with an ulterior motive, there’s no doubt about that,” Mr. Alagiri said.
“This shows their fascist tendencies. The Centre has ordered such a depiction and the State government has followed the orders. This depiction needs to be changed immediately. Otherwise, we will stage protests,” Mr. Alagiri added.
‘Not unintentional’
MDMK leader Vaiko said: “It does not look like it was unintentional. Educationists should look into the contents of the book to see whether a discreet saffronisation attempt is at play here.”
He went on to allege that the Union Education Ministry under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which was functioning under the influence of Hindutva forces, had made several changes for bringing about one language and one culture for the entire country.
There were attempts to impose Hindi across the country and textbooks were being revised in schools run by the central government, Mr. Vaiko claimed.
