The Manohar lal Khattar Government in Haryana has come under fire from the Opposition for removing chapter that highlighted achievements of prominent leaders like Sir Chotu Ram, Ranbir Singh Hooda, Devi lal and Bansi lal from textbooks.
This comes at the time when a chapter on Gita has been added in the textbooks of moral science for the students of classes VI to VIII in the State.
Many prominent Haryana leaders like Sir Chhotu Ram, former Deputy Prime Minister Devi lal, ex CM Bhupinder Hooda’s father Ranbir Hooda and other personalities were the part of a chapter titled ‘Haryana ke Gaurav’ in a class V Hindi textbook that has been removed by the BJP led State Government. Haryana ke Gaurav was introduced in the textbook during the tenure of former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda in the year 2011.
Another chapter titled ‘Gaurav Gatha’ in class IV, has now been introduced, which contains achievements of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Bhagat Singh, lala lajpat Rai and lokmanya Tilak to name a few.
The BJP Government’s move has triggered protests in Haryana and attracted severe criticism from both opposition parties, Congress and INlD. Ranbir Singh Hooda is the father of BS Hooda, Bansi lal was a former CM of Haryana and father-in-law of leader of Congress legislature Party Kiran Choudhry, Devi lal was also a CM and grandfather of leader of Opposition in Vidhan Sabha Abhay Singh Chautala. Union Minister of Rural Development Birender Singh is the grandson of Sir Chottu Ram.
Other prominent names in the chapter included first chief minister of the State Bhagwat Dayal Sharma, as well as, Rao Virender Singh, father of Union minister Rao Inderjit Singh.
leader of Opposition in Haryana Assembly and senior INlD leader Abhay Singh Chautala on Monday said that the BJP led Haryana Government is doing such things to hide their failures. The Government has done nothing for the welfare of the general public in their more than one and half years’ tenure and is busy in changing the history of state, alleged he while talking to the mediapersons.
“BJP is enforcing the saffron agenda… The ruling party is now tampering with the history of the state as they have removed the names of prominent leaders who had contributed to the development of Haryana,” said Chautala.
Blaming the Manohar lal Khattar Government for violence during February’s Jat quota stir, Chautala said that the ruling BJP is trying to divert people’s attention by creating controversies related to textbooks so that the party can hide its failures.
On the other hand, Haryana Congress chief Ashok Tanwar questioned the BJP saying, “What will the ruling party achieve by making changes in the textbooksIJ”
The Congress leader alleged that the priorities of the BJP Government are different and they have nothing to do with public welfare.
While lakhs of people are suffering due to acute water shortage in the state, the State Government is busy in its much hyped `50 crore ‘Saraswati Revival Project’ and making changes in textbooks to promote their agenda, alleged Tanwar.