Lenin replaces Mahatma's name in Tripura textbook: Congress

"In a State Council of Educational Research and Training- (SCERT) prepared textbook for Class 5 in the current academic session, the names of Socrates, Abraham Lincoln, Karl Marx were kept and Lenin's name inserted in place of Mahatma Gandhi," Leader of Opposition Ratan Lal Nath told reporters here.

Threatening to initiate harsh action if the state government does not take corrective measures within seven days, Nath said when they have shown no disrespect to the two communist leaders Karl Marx and Lenin, "why does the Left Front government insult the Father of the Nation?"

"The entire world has been respectfully keen to know the life and ideology of Mahatma Gandhi. Is he not the most revered sons of world," asked Nath. He also alleged that the contents of the textbooks had "huge distortion" of facts relating to India for "brainwashing of the school students in line with Marxism".

Nath wrote a letter to Chief Minister Manik Sarkar on the issue. Meanwhile, a senior SCERT official Dilip Kumar Debbarma denied the charges.

"We did not erase the name of Mahatma Gandhi. His name and life sketch were detailed in a separate chapter of the same book. Mahatma's biography was given with more elaboration in the book compared to previous years," Debbarma told IANS.