-The Times of India The government has maintained that NCERT is an autonomous body. Well, if the insistence is correct, the Cartoons which triggered a political storm should stay in the textbooks. A month before the row over the Cartoons erupted, leading to the decision to banish them, NCERT had defended their use in textbooks, even telling the National Commission for SCs that there was nothing offensive about the B R Ambedkar...
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“Cartoon issue cannot be left to executive discretion”-B Muralidhar Reddy
Eminent persons express concern at Kapil Sibal stand Eminent persons, including Romila Thapar, Prabhat Patnaik and Zoya Hasan, have expressed serious concern at the announcement by Union Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal that Cartoons in textbooks considered ‘offensive' by MPs would be removed. They said the matter shouldn't be considered as one of mere executive discretion. In a signed statement on behalf of the Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust (SHMT), they warned...
More »‘Textbook contents must not be decided by executive’
-The Financial Express A group of well-known scholars has called on the government not to tamper with the contents of academic syllabi on “executive discretion” as was being done in the matter relating to a review of political Cartoons in textbooks. A statement by Romila Thapar, Prabhat Patnaik, Zoya Hasan, Ram Rahman, Jayati Ghosh and Mushirul Hasan, among others, said they were concerned about HRD Minister Kapil Sibal’s statement that an ‘offensive’...
More »Save the classroom from the political class-Suhas Palshikar
We created a textbook that would encourage young citizens to think seriously about politics. But our politicians are not ready for that yet When an emotional issue erupts in the public domain, argument becomes difficult and secondary to decision-making. That is what happened over the controversy regarding the inclusion of a cartoon depicting Dr. B.R. Ambedkar in a class XI textbook. One self-proclaimed inheritor and interpreter of Dr. Ambedkar's legacy ensured...
More »HRD panel cleared all textbooks, say experts
-The Economic Times The prospect of political Cartoons going out of textbooks is a dangerous one. Lessons will become drab again. Worried scholars say the move could signal a devastating reversal in what was nothing short of a revolution in textbook-writing in India. Besides, an HRD ministry panel had vetted and cleared the text books, they say. A beleaguered NCERT, which designed and published the books, has set up a committee to...
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