The issue of “deletion” of Sikh chapters from the Punjab School Education Board’s history books has become a hot potato with the ruling Congress and the SAD-BJP combine continue to engage in war of words over the issue on Monday.
While the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh countered the opposition parties’ “unfounded claims” with hard facts pointing that the decision was taken in 2014 during the Akali’s regime, the SAD set three-day deadline for the government on the issue.
Meanwhile, SAD’s ally — the Bharatiya Janata Party — finally break its silence to slam the ruling party and demanding to revert the decision of deletion of chapters besides tendering an unqualified apology to assuage the feelings of the people.
Chief Minister, taking on the Opposition over the issue of Sikh Gurus in school history books, trashed their “vile” allegations while warning them against harming the state’s interests by playing politics on an issue involving religious sentiments and sensitivities.
Mincing no words in lambasting the SAD president Sukhbir Badal for his baseless statements on the issue, Capt Amarinder said that it had the potential to disturb the peace and harmony of the state.
AT the same time, he also condemned the principal opposition — Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) — for joining the vilification campaign against the government without bothering to verify the facts of the matter.
lashing out at the parties and their leaders for their shameless and reckless statements, Capt Amarinder expressed shock at their blatant efforts to mislead the people of the state. “In the process, they are also playing with the careers and lives of school children by dragging them into a needless controversy,” he added.
Countering the opposition’s “unfounded” claims, Capt Amarinder pointed out that it was during the Akalis regime, in 2014, when the decision to realign the courses with the NCERT syllabus was taken. Further, the SGPC was party to all the discussions on the issue since his government took over in March last year, he said.
“It was on January 9, 2014, that an expert committee was proposed to be set up to discuss the issue of realignment and to finalise the history syllabus from Class IX to XII,” said the Chief Minister, adding that the subject was discussed by the committee over a series of meetings held thereafter, with inputs taken from the Director (NCERT Assistant professor).
He said: “The syllabus, thus, finalized was uploaded on the Board’s website in March 2014. The SGPC had then objected to the syllabus finalized for Class IX in 2015, while there was no consensus achieved on the course for other classes. Eventually, after re-doing the syllabus, the books for Classes IX and X were published by the Board in 2016, and those of Classes XI and XII were decided to be published in 2018.”
Chief Minister further disclosed that soon after taking over the state’s reins, his government had written to the SGPC in March 2017 for discussion on the issue of the History course realignment, given the sensitive nature of the subject.
“In response, the SGPC had deputed Prof Paramveer Singh of Panjabi University, Patiala, who attended all the meetings held to deliberate on the matter,” said Capt Amarinder, flaying SGPC chief Gobind Singh longonwal for “deliberately hiding the real facts on the issue for the sake of promoting his vested political ambitions”.
Capt Amarinder said that contrary to what was being willfully wrongly projected by the Opposition as well as the SGPC, his government had taken every precaution, in the process of the syllabus realignment, to ensure that there is no dilution of Sikh religious history in the course study.
Nailing the Opposition’s lies on the issue, the Chief Minister said that Class XI history book they were citing and quoting in support of their allegations had not even been printed yet. “Their charges that the chapters on the Sikh Gurus were missing from the books were an obvious lie which they were trying to peddle as a truth with their false propaganda,” he added.
Capt Amarinder made it clear that the entire history of the Sikh Gurus has been retained in the realigned syllabus, with no cutting or pruning done. The chapters and materials on Sikh history had been organized in a more cohesive format for ease of learning, across Classes XI and XII, he added.
Following the realignment, the entire period from Guru Nanak Dev to Guru Gobind Singh, and martyrdom of the four Sahibzadas, are now being taught in Class XI in a coherent manner, he said, adding that the history of the four Sahibzadas had been incorporated on his personal recommendation, he said.
In fact, also on his personal suggestion, the Class X history has now incorporated information on the Sargarhi Battle and the noted Sikh General Sham Singh Attariwala, he added.
Clarifying that the entire period of Sikh history is now being taught at the secondary and senior secondary levels, the Chief Minister pointed out that the outline of any syllabus prepared by a Board or University is based on themes and not chapters. The chapters are created by printers and publishers as per their own choice and convenience, he said, trashing the Opposition’s claims on reduction in chapters on the Sikh Gurus.
“I have personally sought a detailed mapping of the old syllabus of Class XI in new syllabus for Class XII and also of the old syllabus of Class XII in new syllabus for Class XI. Both clearly showed that not a single piece of information on the Sikh history or the Sikh Gurus had been dropped in the process of realignment,” he said.
Capt Amarinder pointed, “What is more, to ensure that there is no mutilation of Sikh history and culture, the government has handed over the task of printing of these books to the PSEB, which was earlier not involved in the process, leaving it to the private publishers to print the books and sell them at exorbitant prices.”
With PSEB taking over the printing of history books, not only has the cost come down to less than one-fourth but the authenticity of the content is also assured, he said.
SAD’S CORE GROUP MEETING ON MAY 3
SAD on Monday decided to hold a meeting of its core committee on May 3 to formulate an action plan to force the Congress government to re-insert all 23 “deleted” chapters related to the era of the Sikh Gurus back into the twelfth standard history book of the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB).
SAD president Sukhbir Badal, presiding over a party meeting, took serious notice of the Congress government’s efforts to belittle and insult the rich glorious history of the Sikh Gurus as well as attempts to cover up this perfidy through lies and skullduggery.
Former Education Minister Daljit Singh Cheema said that instead of admitting the “gross mistake”, banning the new book and reprinting the Class XII book with the old chapters, Chief Minister was trying to deceive Punjabis by stating that these chapters had been shifted to the education board’s Class XI history book.
“The entire syllabus as well as chapter wise contents of the Class XI book are available on the internet and it does not contain 23 detailed chapters on the era of the Sikh Gurus. It has only five chapters devoted to Sikh history which merely give a brief overview of the period and are not a detailed and focused study of the great Gurus. This makes it clear that Education Department officials have misled the Chief Minister who has gone by their word instead of ordering an inquiry into the entire issue,” Cheema added.
“It is of prime importance to re-induct all deleted chapters in the Class XII history book as it occupied greater emphasis in a student’s career compared to Class XI. We will come out with an action plan to ensure the contributions made by our great Gurus are not ignored in the land of their birth and the Congress government does not succeed in its bid to remove our history from our history books,” he added.
REVERT DECISION, TENDER UNCONDITIONAl APOlOGY: BJP
Slamming the Congress party and its government led by Capt Amarinder Singh for deletion of chapters pertaining to Sikh history from school history books, BJP has asked Capt Amarinder and Education Minister to revert the decision of deletion of chapters and tender an unqualified apology to assuage the feelings of the people.
BJP national secretary Tarun Chugh said that the Congress was continuing with its agenda of imposing and patronizing British slavery and left ideology even after 70 years of independence.
“The Congress government is playing with the sentiments of the people as it is hell bent on hitting the original culture and pride of Indian history by ignoring or deleting chapters related to Sikh Gurus from the history books meant for school students,” he said.
SONI DEMANDS SUKHBIR’s RESIGNATION
lashing out at the Akalis over the disinformation campaign unleashed by them on the issue of school history books, Punjab School Education Minister OP Soni demanded SAD president Sukhbir Badal’s resignation in the wake of the Chief Minister’s detailed rebuttal to his baseless allegations.
Capt Amarinder had not only taken on Sukhbir’s challenge but had gone a step ahead to expose the lies he had been branding about for the last couple of days, said Soni, adding that the detailed mapping of the syllabus of Classes IX and XII released by the Chief Minister clearly showed that there was no deletion or dilution of the history of the Sikh Gurus in the school syllabus.
Soni expressed shock at the brazen attempt of the Akalis to politicize a sensitive issue like religion, saying that the Badals had once again proved that they could stoop to any lows to promote their vested personal interests.
Further ridiculing the Akalis for seeking to take a high moral ground about school text books after allowing such books to be used to promote vulgarity during their own regime, Soni recalled 2013 controversy surrounding school books by private suppliers, said to have been hand-picked by the then Education Minister Sikander Singh Maluka.
“Those books had to be withdrawn after they were found not only to be full of errors but to be making vulgar and sexist remarks about women,” he pointed out.
Given the fact that those books had been approved by a panel of five officials of the erstwhile SAD-BJP regime, the Akalis were the last people who could be said to be qualified to judge the quality or standards of any school books, said Soni.
Soni said that the incident had also exposed the total lack of quality control on text books by private publishers, who had been entrusted with the task of printing of all History books, and were selling these books at exorbitant costs.
The Captain Amarinder government had, for the first time, handed over the task of printing the History books to the PSEB, which was earlier not involved in the process, the Education Minister pointed out, adding that this reflected the government’s commitment to ensuring that there is no mutilation of Sikh history or culture. The authenticity of the content will now be ensured with this move, he added.