BENGALURU : Opposition parties are taking the ruling BJP government in Karnataka to task over the inclusion of a speech by RSS founder Keshav Baliram Hedgewar and the reported removal of a chapter on Bhagat Singh from the Class 10 Kannada textbook.
Even though Primary and Secondary Education Minister B C Nagesh clarified that only Hedgewar’s speech was included in the textbook and reports on removal of the chapter on Bhagat Singh was not correct, opposition leaders, including Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) founder and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal flayed the government over the issue.
Taking to Twitter, he said, “Why does the BJP hate ‘Amar Shaheed’ Sardar Bhagat Singh so much? Removal of Bhagat Singh’s content from school books is an insult to his sacrifice. The country will not tolerate this humiliation of its martyrs at all. The BJP government will have to take back this decision.”
He was joined by JDS leader H D Kumaraswamy who in a series of tweets likened the BJP to the British for adopting the divide and rule policy. After raking up issues over hijab, halal, and trade, the BJP has latched onto textbooks, he said. “I have contempt for the systematic conspiracy of turning textbooks into the party’s books. Targeting and deleting selected texts is the expanded designs of the BJP. Removal of lessons on Bhagat Singh and forcing of Hedgewar’s speech is the testimony of the BJP’s zenith of perversion,” he said and asked people of the state to be vigilant and be prepared to fight against this.
KPCC president D K Shivakumar also condemned the Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai-led BJP government. “It is an anti-national move by the Karnataka government to drop lessons on great martyr Bhagat Singh. Today they are removing Bhagat Singh, tomorrow they will remove Mahatma Gandhi. Let us never forget the sacrifices of those who freed us from colonialism (sic),” he tweeted.