Textbook row: Karnataka education minister is a fool, says academician

Senior academician V P Niranjanaradhya on Wednesday dubbed Karnataka School Education & Literacy Minister B C Nagesh as "a fool", while speaking on the controversy over textbooks.

"B C Nagesh is such a fool that he has no knowledge on education," Niranjanaradhya of the National Law School of India University, said during a discussion on the revision of textbooks organised by the Vishwamanava Rashtrakavi Kuvempu Kalaniketana.

"If the minister had minimum common sense, he would have stopped the person appointed to revise the textbooks citing that there was no curriculum framework available. The committee was formed by the earlier minister, but after taking charge of the portfolio, Nagesh did not even bother to verify whether there were provisions to revise textbooks. This arrogance itself shows that they have revised the textbooks intentionally," Niranjanaradhya said, referring to the now-dissolved textbook revision committee headed by Rohith Chakratirtha.

He questioned the government on "what morality it has" to distribute the revised textbooks to schoolchildren. "When the government itself said in its order that the committee chairman will be responsible for any issues after the revision, in what capacity is the department is distributing those books when so many objections were raised?" he said.

Meanwhile, writer Baraguru Ramachandrappa, who headed the previous textbook revision committee, said that there was no need to get a certificate from "a person who compared state flag to an undergarment and insulted Dr B R Ambedkar".

Defending the textbooks his committee revised, Baraguru said: "We had not given negative information on anybody, even Savarkar."

He further said that while it is common for everyone to have a religious ideology, it is "unacceptable" to impose them on children through textbooks. "While writing or revising the textbooks, we must maintain mental distance with our ideology," he said.

Retired Karnataka High Court Justice H N Nagamohan Das and others were present at the discussion.