NEW DELHI: THE revised curriculum for undergraduate courses at Delhi University, which has been approved by the standing committee, has erupted into a controversy with the introduction of a fiction on Gujarat riots in English Honours. According to university sources, in the standing committee meeting that was held on Thursday, there was also a protest against the abolition of studies on Sufi Saint Amir Khusro from the syllabus of History Honours.
The story ‘Maniben alias Bibijaan’ by author Shilpa Paralkar describes its protagonist, Manu as “the promising secretary of Gujarat Yuvak Bajrang Dal”, who teaches Physics to the students at an RSS-run school. Paralkar has narrated the plight of a Muslim man, who became a victim of the mob that set his house on fire. In a part of the story, a Muslim man narrates his ordeal to Manu’s mother, saying: “They came with lists and kerosene cans. I begged and pleaded but they destroyed my TV shop, looted it and then locked Nafisa and me in the back room and set us on fire.”
Standing Committee member Rasal Singh said the RSS-run Shishugriha Vidyalaya “has been wrongly shown and has been portrayed as the killers in riots.”
The Standing Committee at Delhi University has approved the draft of the new curriculum for more than 78 undergraduate programmes to be implemented in this session.
The final decision will be taken by the Executive Council on July 20, a day before the new session will begin at DU.
Even though Executive Council member Rajesh Jha said that the “merit of its (story’s) content will be looked into” for a decision on the inclusion of the Gujarat riot story, he said that the university’s process of revising the syllabus was “objectionable” and that resulted in ideological differences during the process of decision making.