Instead of maintaining law and order situation and protecting hapless women from being gang raped in Rajasthan, the Ashok Gehlot Government is busy rewriting the history textbooks for school
Agnima Sharma, Jaipur
Anew controversy has erupted in Rajasthan with the Congress Government making changes in the biography of Savarkar in the school curriculum which instead of introducing him as a hero describes him as a person who sent four mercy petitions to Britishers to get freed from tortures being meted out to him in the Cellular jail in Andaman and Nicobar islands.
However, in the recently introduced school curriculum, he is being described as a person who begged for mercy from British Government after being tortured and tormented by Jail authorities in the jail.
Earlier too, the Congress government in Rajasthan has been in news for overturning many other decisions of BJP government soon after coming to power in the state.
However, this issue has triggered a war of words between Congress and the BJP with former saying that syllabus has been prepared according to the proposals of the Committee constituted for review of Syllabus while the latter accused the party of insulting the freedom fighters.
Savarkar’s biography comes with many newer facts in recently amended syllabus which describes that Savarkar, after being tortured by the authorities in jail, had sent mercy petitions to the British government four times. It says that he accepted to work according to terms and conditions of the government and that he had also introduced himself as the son of Portugal empire.
The British Government accepted the petitions and released Savarkar from cellular jail in 1921 and thereafter kept him in Ratnagiri jail. After being released from here, Savarkar became a member of Hindu Mahasabha and continued to campaign for establishing India as a Hindu nation.
Later on, during World War II, Savarkar joined hands with the British Government. He also opposed the Quit India Movement in 1942. After Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination, he was accused of supporting Godse. However, he was later acquitted of these allegations, says the new text in chapter.
The former Education Minister Vasudev Devnani has termed it as an insult of Veer Savarkar’s gallantry. He says that Veer Savarkar has been associated with Hindutva. “Congress hates Hindutva issue and has therefore tried to tarnish the image of Savarkar. The biographies of these revolutionaries are included in the syllabus so that the children can learn from them. However changing the facts is their insult which is not right.”
Speaking in this context, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said, “Every party in power reviews its state’s education policy based on its ideology once it comes in power. We are doing the same now. However, these changes are just a proposal based on the recommendations of a committee formed to review the school syllabus.” Minister of State for Education Govind Singh Dotasara said that the new syllabus was prepared according to the proposals given by the committee members. There is just no politics in this matter.
Union minister of HRD and state in charge for Lok Sabha election Prakash Javadekar said, “Congress follows the principle of terming one family as the best. Ek Khandaan ka banana, deshbhakton ka apman, Rana Pratap se Akbar Mahaan forms the ideology of their historical base.
