New Delhi, Apr 5 (PTI) The Congress on Wednesday accused the government of distorting history and “whitewashing it with a vengeance” after dropping some content from NCERT textbooks, including the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi and the temporary ban on the RSS.
The opposition slammed the BJP-RSS saying that those who try to rewrite history will be relegated to the “dustbin of history”.
Texts like “Gandhiji’s death had a magical effect on the communal atmosphere in the country”, “Gandhi’s push for Hindu-Muslim unity fueled Hindu extremism” and “Organisations like RSS were banned for some time” were omitted from the Class 12 Political Science textbook. For the new academic session.
Congress president Mallikarjuna Kharge slammed the BJP and RSS parties over the issue and said that history cannot be erased no matter how hard they try.
“You can make changes in textbooks, but you can’t change the history of the country. This is an attempt by the BJP-RSS, they can try as much as they want, but they can’t erase history,” he said.
Tagging the media report on the issue, Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh tweeted, “White washing with venience”.
Tagging another statement saying that chapters on Mughals and Dalit writers were also removed from textbooks, he said, “This reveals the true mindset of the ruling regime. After all, the RSS not only attacked Gandhi, but strongly opposed it. Even Dr. Ambedkar.”
Asked about the issue at a press conference at the Congress headquarters here, Manish Tiwari said rewriting history was a “continuous effort” by the RSS and the BJP.
“This is not the first time this is happening. I recall that in the first and second NDA governments in 1998-99, this particular plan was released. What I want to say is that you can distort history, but you can’t erase it,” he said.
Truth has a way of revealing itself. Tiwari said history testifies that those who have tried to rewrite history have been relegated to the “dustbin of history”.
Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate also hit out at the BJP, accusing them of trying to erase Mahatma Gandhi’s contribution by writing a “new history”.
But Prime Minister Modi, history is not changed, it is made by strong determination.
Union Minister Shoba Karandlaje defended the decision to remove some references from textbooks, saying the Congress was the “biggest manipulator” of India’s historical facts and the BJP was only correcting past mistakes.
Barbarism of Mughals, Emergency era, Genocide of Kashmiri Pandits and Sikhs, corruption of Congress are facts that threaten @INCIndia and do not find place in textbooks. BJP is only correcting your mistakes,” he said.
Asked about the removal from textbooks, NCERT chairman Dinesh Saklani said, “The subject expert panel has recommended dropping books on Gandhi. It was accepted last year only. It was not mentioned in the rationalized content list due to oversight. The list will be announced in a couple of days.”
