After Savarkar Rewrite, Raj Govt to Remove Note Ban From Textbooks

The school textbook had dubbed demonetisation decision as “historic” and an “operation to clean black money.”

(Photo: Harsh Sahani/The Quint)

Rajasthan’s education minister Govind Singh Dotasara has said that the ruling Congress government is set to remove references to demonetisation from school textbooks for the current academic session.

“Demonetisation was a most unsuccessful experiment. The three objectives the Prime Minister had mentioned for demonetisation – end of terrorism, corruption and bringing back money – couldn’t be achieved and the public was forced to stand in line. It also put a burden of more than Rs 10,000 crore on the country,” Dotasara told The Indian Express.

The portion on demonetisation was introduced by the Vasundhara Raje-led BJP government in the political science book of class 12 in 2017.

The textbook had “hailed” the decision as “historic” and as an “operation to clean black money.”

The minister said that another picture, depicting women committing johar, has been removed from the class 8 English text book.

“It was felt that there was no need for the picture in an English textbook. Moreover, we felt that it wasn’t appropriate that today’s women read textbooks which carry pictures of women committing self-immolation. What are we trying to teach by that?” he added, as per the report.

This comes just a day after the Congress government had announced that changes will be made in the biography of RSS icon Veer Savarkar to teach the “correct” history, reported ANI.

Dotasara had said that people like Savarkar have been glorified in the textbooks to suit the “political gains” of the RSS.

“The then BJP government made the education department a laboratory and it had made changes in the curriculum for the political interests of the RSS. The then government had developed a biography of Veer Savarkar. The facts of this topic were subjected to revision by a review committee by our government. The report elucidated that Savarkar had been presented in greater light for political interests.”

Govind Dotasara, Rajasthan Education Minister

The 2017 textbook of the Rajasthan state board had stated that Savarkar was the “only brave revolutionary to be sentenced to two life terms of imprisonment and put in tireless efforts to stop partition.”

In the new curriculum, Savarkar is portrayed as “someone who was not a hero, was troubled by the torture in the jail, and who said sorry to the British government.”

Speaking to the news agency, Dotasara had said that the Congress has changed the syllabus to teach it in a “right way.”

"Congress believes that the children should be taught history in an honest and right way. This is the reason why the education department is taking up the matter seriously and is firm on changing the syllabus in the right way," Dotasara added.

(With inputs from The Indian Express, ANI)