The newly installed Congress government in Rajasthan has started its work with the copying previous BJP government’s ongoing plans, like- farm loan waiver. Later now, the new cabinet has planned to scrap various work done by the previous government including state boards textbooks. New cabinet held a meeting on Tuesday where revision of certain textbooks and syllabus was discussed among other issues. According to the education minister, the government will try to undo the “saffronisation of education”.
Education Minister Govind Singh Dotasara says that a committee of historians and educationists will review changes in the syllabus created by the BJP where references to several prominent personalities were done away with in textbooks for Rajasthan.
According to Dotasara, in 2016, Jawaharlal Nehru’s name was dropped from state board’s Class 8 textbooks. Emperor Akbar lost his traditional title of ”Great”, which was given to the person who fought battles against him — Maharana Pratap. The change in historical nomenclature was the brainchild of former education minister Vasudev Devnani, who justified his decision by saying there can’t be two ‘Great’ kings from the same era.
Reviewing Yoga and changing bicycle colour are their visionary plans?
Dotasara further said that the decisions such as Surya Namaskar, a yoga practice made compulsory in all government schools in the state, and saffron bicycles for schoolchildren will be reviewed. Bicycles will get a colour change as the government is “willing to replace the orange with any other colour”.
The minister said that the textbooks for Classes 1 to 8, introduced in July 2016, were rewritten with a focus on “Indian culture” and included government schemes such as Swachh Bharat Mission and Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao programme.
Mr Dotasara added that they (BJP government) spared only Gandhi ji on currency notes… and forgot the contribution of many others, including Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. They only remember RSS ideologue Deendayal Upadhyaya.
The people of Rajasthan are looking forward to seeing more development in the state. Fighting over school syllabus, changing bicycle colour, and reviewing yoga practices are the least important sectors to focus on. And the word “saffronisation” is a tool used by the Congress party to misinform the mass in a bid to divert vote banks.
