Undoing BJP Changes: Karnataka Drops Chapter On RSS Founder, Brings Back Ambedkar & Nehru In Textbooks

Bengaluru: The Congress government in Karnataka is all set to ‘undo’ the changes which were introduced by the recently-ousted ousted BJP regime.

The Karnataka Cabinet on Thursday approved a set of revisions to textbooks on Kannada and social science in state schools. Chapters on RSS founder Keshav Baliram Hedgewar will be removed, while those on Savitribai Phule, Chakravarti Sulibele, Jawaharlal Nehru’s letters to Indira Gandhi and poetry on BR Ambedkar will be added.

The newly-introduced chapters will be taught as supplementary texts for the time being, as textbooks for the academic year have already been circulated, reported India Today.

State Education minister Madhu Bangarappa informed newspersons the textbook revision is being done at a cost of around Rs 10 to 12 lakh and that students will get the supplementary texts within 10 days.

The revision is in accordance with Congress’s poll manifesto released ahead of state assembly elections.

According to Karnataka Law minister HK Patil, the state Cabinet has decided to make reading of Preamble of the Constitution along with singing of regular hymns in schools and colleges compulsory.

Last year, Congress, as the chief Opposition, and some writers had demanded the removal of then-textbook review committee chief Rohith Chakratirtha for allegedly ‘saffronising’ school textbooks by including the RSS founder’s speech as a chapter, besides removing chapters on freedom fighters and social reformers.