Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Monday asked the Government to immediately accept its mistake or be ready to face a massive stir if new books were not scrapped, and replaced with the new ones.
SAD president Sukhbir Badal alleged that the government had not only removed the entire history of the 10 Sikh Gurus from the Class XII history book of Punjab State Education Board (PSEB) but also chopped off the history of several saints including Guru Ravi Das and Sant Namdev.
“It is shameful that an elected government has chosen to omit 23 chapters on 10 Sikh Gurus from Class XII history book and replace it with a 24-line excerpt…This is not all. Even a legend like Baba Banda Singh Bahadur had been given only two lines in the new history book which had replaced Sikh history with the history of the Congress party as well as historical figures like Ahmed Shah Abdali and Auranzeb,” he said.
He added that even the Bhakti movement as well as the work done by reformers like Guru Ravi Das as well as Sant Namdev had been severely edited and presented in minuscule detail even though this had been covered properly in the Class XII’s old textbooks.
Exhorting the Chief Minister to admit his mistake immediately and replace the old book after scrapping the new one, Sukhbir said that if this was not done, the SAD would launch a state-wide peoples’ movement to make the government listen to the sentiments of Punjabis on this sensitive issue which concerned their culture and heritage.
SAD MP Prof Prem Singh Chandumajra said that people were also reacting to the anti-Punjabi move at the village level. “I have received feedback that village panchayats want to pass resolutions to stop their children from learning this new history in case the government does not amend its actions immediately.”