Political scientists Suhas Palshikar and Yogendra Yadav have requested the NCERT to remove their names as chief advisers from all political science textbooks. They claim the recent rationalisation exercise has “mutilated” the books beyond recognition and rendered them “academically dysfunctional”.
Palshikar and Yadav expressed their embarrassment at being associated with the textbooks and wrote a letter to the NCERT stating that the cuts made in the books were arbitrary and irrational.
The two scholars, who initially served as chief advisers for the political science books for classes 9 to 12, said, “While the modifications have been justified in the name of rationalisation, we fail to see any pedagogic rationale at work here.”
“We find that the text has been mutilated beyond recognition. There are innumerable and irrational cuts and large deletions without any attempts to fill the gaps created. We were never consulted or even informed of these changes. If NCERT did consult other experts for deciding on these cuts and deletions, we explicitly state that we fully disagree with them in this regard,” according to the letter sent to NCERT Director Dinesh Saklani.
Palshikar, an academician and political scientist, and Yadav, political scientist and Swaraj India leader, were chief advisors for the Political Science books for classes 9 to 12 originally published in 2006-07 based on the 2005 version of the National Curriculum Framework (NCF). Their names are mentioned in a “letter to students” and the list of textbook development team at the beginning of each book.