People's Democracy

THE JNU Students Union (JNUSU) held a protest demonstration before the NCERT against the recent move to selectively delete portions from school textbooks of history. This demonstration was held on November 27 in coordination with teachers and eminent academicians from the Forum Against Communalisation of Education. They raised slogans against Vajpayee government for saffronising education to suit its political ends.

In a statement issued later the JNUSU stated that the circular is in total violation of all academic norms, wherein the authors of respective school textbooks were not even consulted before making changes in their works. Neither has the NCERT cited any academic reason for deleting these portions. The fact that all these textbooks have been taught for over two decades without controversies certainly makes the argument forwarded by the defenders of the NCERT very dubious. How could the suggested portions be "hurting the sentiments of any community" if no objections to this effect have been made by anyone so far? The attempts by the NCERT/CBSE to delete sections which are critical of the Brahmanical order was strongly condemned by the JNUSU which demanded the immediate withdrawal of the circular.

It also condemned the attempt by RSS-infiltrated academic institutions to straight jacket the past of the Indian people to suit the present political and ideological compulsions of the Sangh Parivar. "The far-reaching damage being done to the entire discipline of history by these cultural fanatics needs to be defended by all academic minded as well as progressive and democratic citizens of our country. We reaffirm our commitment to fighting communalisation and saffronisation of education and also call upon the entire student community of our country to defend such attacks on our sensibilities" stated the JNUSU.