The Nitish regime has, in principle, decided to delete the chapter on Lalu: Mitti Ka Gaurav from the text book Gadya Sopan, meant for Std VIII students. It will be replaced by a new chapter on social reformer of Maharashtra, Jyotiba Phule.

“I am of the opinion that no living person should be incorporated in the textbooks meant for schools,” said Bihar’s Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Brishen Patel. “Let me make this clear that this is not a politically motivated decision. We have just acted on the recommendations of the review committee which favoured exclusion of Lalu from the textbooks,” the HRD Minister added.

But the RJD leaders are livid.

“The chapter was not in praise of Lalu, as propagated. It had only references to him along with two other former CMs Karpoori Thakur and Bhola Paswan Shastri,” said RJD MLC and former Professor of Patna University Ramvachan Rai, who had edited the book then.

NCERT remarks

In fact, Rai cited the provisions of NCERT to buttress his point. “The book fulfils NCERT criteria allowing States to incorporate 20 per cent of the text subjects which are local to the State and inspire students. This chapter was about three leaders who were born in extremely poor family but achieved a social status on their own,” averred Rai.

JD (U), however, justifies the deletion of the chapter. “How can a scam-tainted person inspire the new generation?,” wondered party national spokesperson Shivanand Tiwari. But former HRD minister Ramchandra Purve, under whose tenure the chapter on Lalu was incorporated in 1993, said that by deleting the chapter, Nitish had set a bad precedence,” added Purve.