Over the last two years, candidates appearing in recruitment exams conducted by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Haryana government have been asked to answer questions about Ramdev and leaders of other cults, The Indian Express reported on Tuesday.
“Where is the dera of Kali Kamali Baba?”, “Who is the guru of Baba Ramdev?”, “Which place in Haryana is related to Kapil Muni?” are some of the questions that aspirants for posts including police constables, clerks, food sub-inspectors, revenue officials have been asked.
Though officials in the Haryana Staff Selection Commission refused to comment on the matter, state BJP spokesperson Raman Malik told the daily that the “questions are related to the social fabric of the state that should be known by the aspirants”.
Some of the candidates the paper spoke to were befuddled why such questions were being asked. A candidate in the recruitment exams for police constables and bus conductors said after not having found these questions in any book, he had sought his grandparents’ help. “We don’t understand the logic behind such questions,” he told the daily.
Last month, Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma said that the BJP government was working towards introducing a new syllabus in schools. He asserted that Mughal rulers played no role in India’s history other than looting its wealth.
The content of textbooks has been debated in BJP-ruled states, with the party’s critics accusing it of trying to portray a skewed version of history.
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