JOIN USGovt to ban cartoons from school textbooks
Bowing to pressure from members of Parliament agitated over a cartoon depicting B R Ambedkar in an NCERT-prescribed textbooks, the government on Monday announced it was banning cartoons from textbooks.
Textbooks with controversial cartoons will be withdrawn from curriculum, senior minister Pranab Mukherjee told the Lok Sabha.
“All objectionable material in textbooks and, if necessary, the books, will be removed," Mukherjee said. Such books would not be prescribed and the entire publication would be withdrawn.
The controversy over the six-decade-old cartoon that depicts Ambedkar and Jawharlal Nehru in a school textbook, in use over the past few years, initiated by dalit organisations has now enveloped the entire political spectrum.
Mukherjee said HRD Minister Kapil Sibal or he himself would apprise the House once steps had been taken.
Sibal said the government would conduct an inquiry into the role of NCERT employees who approved the inclusion of the offending material in the textbook. The government would ensure that such instances did not occur in the future.”
“We believe textbooks are not the place where these issues should be influencing impressionable minds. That's our position,” Sibal said. “The same cartoon in a newspaper may well be acceptable, but the same cartoon or a series of such cartoons attacking the political class or a community in a textbook which has a tendency to influence impressionable minds may well not be acceptable.”
Earlier in the day, while raising the issue in the House, BJP leader Yashwant Sinha demanded Sibal’s removal.
“Of late, I have noticed a tendency among some people to denigrate politicians, parliamentarians and even parliament... just removing the cartoons from the textbooks would not do... HRD minister Kapil Sibal should go,” Sinha said. He said these books would have an impact on “impressionable minds.”
The Left parties felt that the trend of depicting the politicians in bad light was not good for the country. “The whole country is being polluted... there is a general atmosphere that all politicians are thieves,” said CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta.
Censored
* Textbooks with controversial cartoons to be withdrawn.
* Pranab Mukherjee or Kapil Sibal to apprise the House once steps are taken.
* Inquiry into the role of NCERT employees who approved the inclusion of offending material in the textbooks.
* Move follows row over R Ambedkar’s cartoon in an NCERT textbook.
* Yashwant Sinha of BJP demands Sibal’s removal over cartoon row.