After NCERT, the Board of Secondary Education (BSE), a government agency monitoring elementary education in Orissa, has dared to defame the martyrs like Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, Rajguru and Chandrasekhar Azad. In it'sSocial Study book for Class-X, these venerable heroes are described as ?Extremists?, which has created much ire among general public, students and luminaries around the State.
This agency which publishes text books for the school children and conducts examinations, has allegedly published defamatory imputations in it'ssocial studies books under the Chapter ?Bharata re Swadhinata Sangram? or ?Freedom Movement in India?. In this Chapterr, it is mentioned that Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, Chandrasekhar Azad and Rajguru were ?extremists? who took to revolutionary activities to attain political goal.
While depicting Mahatma Gandhi as a believer of non-violence and his role in the freedom movement, the Chapter speaks about those who took to violence as a means to achieving the goal of Independence. Patriot leader like Surya Sen has been mentioned as ?Suryasena? and made accused of attacking Chittagang Port with arms and ammunitions. The book also narrates about Binoy Ghosh, Badam and Dinesh who had created uproar in Bengal after killing white officers there, but unfortunately Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev have been titled as ?extremists?. Great martyr Chandrasekhar Azad has been given the same title.
On Page – 141 (second edition), the book provides a definition of ?Santrashbad? or terrorism and made it synonymous with ?extremism?. And the term ?extremism? has been described as ?A weapon to dethrone an established political organisation forcefully from power?. From this point of view, the BSE treats the great national heroes as extremists because they tried to throw away the British empire from Indian soil.
Surprisingly, the book does not see any difference among these martyrs and the ill-known terrorists belonging from different jehadi groups, Naxal groups etc. It has used the same word ?extremists? for those anti-social terrorists who attacked over Parliament and World Trade Center. Osama Bin Laden is also made equal with Bhagat Singh, Azad and Sukhdev being titled as ?Extremist?. Hence all these martyrs and those terrorists are placed in the same berth.
Reactions:
This anti-national move of the BSE has been answered strongly by Hindu national outfits. Itihas Sankalan Samiti has expressed great concern over the issue. It'sState Organising Secretary Shri Kamalesh Das told to Organiser:- ?Really it is an anti-social move.
Shri Bishnu Das, organising secretary of ABVP, in his reaction warned the government to correct the syllabus. ?On behalf of our organisation, I express strong reactions against it. They are the real terrorists who have written such a book. These books must be thrown out of the syllabus.?
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