Whitewashing with a vengeance: Congress

The cover of NCERT history book for Std XII. Pic/ncert.nic.in

The Congress on Wednesday accused the government of distorting history and "whitewashing with a vengeance" after certain content from NCERT textbooks was dropped, including on Mahatma Gandhi's assassination and the subsequent ban on the RSS for some time. The Opposition party slammed the BJP-RSS, saying that those who try to re-write history are consigned to the "dustbin of history".

"Gandhiji's death had a magical effect on communal situation in the country", "Gandhi's pursuit of Hindu-Muslim unity provoked Hindu extremists" and "Organisations like RSS were banned for some time" are among the texts missing from the Std XII political science textbook for the new academic session. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said, "You can (make) changes in textbooks but you cannot change the history of the country. This is an attempt by the BJP-RSS, they can try as much as they want, but they cannot erase history."

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Tagging another report, which said that chapters related to the Mughals and Dalit writers have also been axed from the textbooks, he said, "This reveals the ruling regime's TRUE mindset. After all, the RSS had not only attacked Gandhi but had been bitterly opposed to Dr Ambedkar as well." Union minister Shobha Karandlaje defended the move and said the Congress was the "biggest manipulator" of India's historical facts and the BJP was only correcting the wrongdoings of the past.

NCERT chief Dinesh Saklani said, "Subject expert panel had recommended dropping texts on Gandhi. It was accepted last year only. It was not mentioned in the list of rationalised content due to oversight. Any missing contents in the list will be notified in a day or two."

2022
Year NCERT claims changes were made

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