Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday criticised the Central Board of Secondary Education for dropping excerpts of poems of renowned Pakistani poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz and chapters on democracy and diversity amongst others from the Class 10 Social Science textbook.
In a tweet, Gandhi described the national level board of education as “Central Board of Suppressing Education”. He also shared a picture of a shredder branded as “Rashtriya Shiksha Shredder” – a reference to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the ideological parent of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The verses written by Faiz were part of the “Religion, Communalism and Politics – Communalism, Secular State” segment of the National Council of Educational Research and Training’s textbook called “Democratic Politics II”.
While the CBSE had reportedly said that the segment will continue to be part of the textbook, it, however, had removed three pages carrying posters of verses written by Faiz and a political cartoon.
Apart from verses written by Faiz, the CBSE has also dropped chapters on democracy and diversity that documented social division and inequalities in India and movements, “popular struggles and movements” with a focus on Nepal and Bolivia and “challenges to democracy” on reforming politics from the textbook.
The board also dropped a chapter on “Central Islamic Lands” that dealt with Islamic empires in Afro-Asian territories from the Class 11 History course content, segments on the “Impact of globalisation on agriculture” from a chapter on food security in the Class 10 curriculum and a chapter on “Cold war era and Non-aligned Movement” from the Class 12 Political Science curriculum.
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