-The Economic Times School textbooks will not feature any 'offensive' political cartoon, the government assured on Monday, days after a 1949 cartoon of Dalit icon Ambedkar in a political science text rocked Parliament. The government has ordered an inquiry to identify NCERT officials responsible for inclusion of the Ambedkar cartoon in the textbook, HRD minister Kapil Sibal said in the Lok Sabha. "I found that a number of cartoons were inappropriate...a review...
More »SEARCH RESULT
Total Matching Records found : 451
Freedom of expression is contextual, says Kapil Sibal
-IANS Union Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal Monday said that freedom of expression is "contextual". His statement came even as members in the Lok Sabha once again united in criticising cartoons in NCERT textbooks, stating that these allegedly denigrated political leaders, especially the ones on B.R. Ambedkar. Sibal promised the Lok Sabha that all objectionable material would be removed and the role of advisors of NCERT (National Council for Educational Research and...
More »Govt humours MPs, may ban all cartoons in school textbooks
-The Times of India Government on Monday appeared to be considering putting an end to the innovative use of cartoons to make school textbooks more appealing to students. Although a committee set up by the government to look into the use of cartoons is to submit its report on June 15, UPA appeared set to end the experiment altogether. "We believe textbooks are not the place where these issues (cartoons) should be...
More »Ambedkar cartoon row: An act of cowardly populism, says Shiv Visvanathan
-The Economic Times Babasaheb Ambedkar is one of the most fascinating figures in Indian politics. In hagiographic terms, if Gandhi is the father of the nation, Ambedkar is father of the Indian Constitution. Both have a legendary status which inspires hagiolatry. Any critique of them is seen as iconoclastic. Gandhians tend to put Gandhi in moth balls in their Ashrams. Dalits similarly tend to freeze Ambedkar, disallowing the slightest controversy. Strangely Hindu...
More »Zero tolerance
-The Indian Express Where are the tall leaders who could put an end to this experiment in censorship? The UPA government may have only been true to character when it keeled over at the first hint of political uproar against cartoons in NCERT textbooks. Union HRD Minister Kapil Sibal hurried to withdraw the book with the newly controversial Ambedkar cartoon, without a minimal attempt at debate, and Pranab Mukherjee said that books...
More »
