NEW DELHI: The controversy over NCERT deletions continues, with the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) history, its struggles, protests and activities being removed by NCERT from the class XII political science textbook.
Protesting the move, Rakesh Tikait shot a letter to Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and NCERT.
While Pradhan acknowledged the letter, the NCERT chief’s office didn’t deny the deletion but told this newspaper that they would respond soon to BKU, a farmer’s representative organisation founded by Former Prime Minister Chaudhary Charan Singh.
Tikait, who led a year-long farmer’s agitation against the government farm bill, said the government is changing the entire history of India.
In his letter, the BKU chief said the NCERT had deleted the chapter ‘Rise of Popular Movements’ from the Class XII Political Science book ‘Politics in India since Independence’, which had two pages on BKU and its growth.
The chapter also had a box carrying a news article that quoted a statement held by former BKU leader Mahendra Singh Tikait.
NCERT chief Dinesh Prasad Saklani had earlier told this newspaper that some contents were removed during the rationalisation of textbooks last year due to Covid in an attempt to reduce the burden for students.