Taking on his successor over the ongoing controversy of history book, Punjab’s former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Tuesday said that Capt Amarinder Singh “is lying in his claim that the decision to delete Sikh history from the books meant for Class XII of Punjab School Education Board was taken in 2013 during the Akali-BJP regime”.
“All the chapters on Punjab and Sikh history, which they have deleted now, continued to be taught to Class XII students through SAD-BJP regime including the period from 2013 to 2017,” he said, adding that new books for Class XII minus chapters on Punjab history including the Sikh Guru Sahibaan were being printed only now.
“If the decision to exclude all these chapters on Punjab and Sikh history was taken during the SAD-BJP regime in 2013, then how come it was still being taught up to 2017IJ” asked Badal.
Badal advised Chief Minister Capt Amarinder to read old books and the new to see when the changes had been made and what were the changes.“The sad fact is that they have removed Sikh history and replaced it with the history of the Congress party,” he said.
Saying that it was ridiculous that the CM had changed his stance within 24 hours, Badal pointed that Capt Amarinder had first said that no chapters had been deleted from Class XII and that these had only been shifted to Class XI.
“Now, he is falsely claiming that the decision on the new syllabus was taken in 2013. The officers are putting the Chief Minister in an awkward situation. Instead of defending his officers, he should have stood by Sikh history and ordered an independent inquiry into the whole incident,” he said.
Badal also asked Capt Amarinder to read the acknowledgements page in the new book which gives credit for the change to the new team of 2018. “This will show him who has brought about the changes.
The acknowledgement page admits that the changes have been made only now and the new team is claiming ‘credit’ for it. I think they did not show this page to the CM,” he added.
Concluding, the former Chief Minister said that the correct course even now for Capt Amarinder was to order the continuance of the old syllabus and books and to get an independent inquiry conducted into who was behind the mischief.