The series of gross mistakes in a passage attributed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the half-term English exam question paper for class 10 of Rajasthan Board for Secondary Education (RBSE) has caused embarrassment to the education department.
The first question of the paper comprising a passage on Modi described him as a "spoker, craod-puller and sovy leader." The passage reads, "Modi served as the Chief Minister of Gujrat for the four terms. As a spoker he is known as a craod-puller. He is the most sovy political leader of India."
The spelling mistakes in the entire paragraph has left education officials in Rajasthan red-faced, that too a BJP-ruled state.
A paragraph devoted to Modi's life describes him as an introvert, workaholic and poet, who writes poems but only in Gujarati.
Drawing attention to his political life in younger days, the passage mentions Modi joining the RSS at the age of eight. "He became an RSS Pracharak, who left home at the age of 17 and returned after two years," reads a line from the passage.
Speaking to DH, RBSE chairman B L Chaudhary said, "There seems to be a lot of printing errors. We will get this examined by our panel. Students will not suffer. We have provision for bonus marks, which we can award students attempting this question."
The goof-ups in the paper drew diverse reactions. The Congress called it another attempt at saffronisation. "The question paper is another propaganda of the ruling BJP government in Rajasthan to saffronise the syllabus with their ideology. One can see it is an attempt to promote RSS ideology," PCC chief Sachin Pilot told DH.
The exam paper with a passage on Modi and his RSS ideology comes exactly after a month of Rajasthan government asking students to attend vande mataram recital and an education fair organised by an RSS-backed outfit.
Published 12 December 2017, 15:24 IST