Govt to gauge public mood on textbook revision

Minister Nagesh says contents revised by BJP as well as Congress regimes will be placed before people

NT Correspondent
Bengaluru

Karnataka Primary and Secondary Education Minister B C Nagesh (in pic) on Tuesday said the government has decided to place before the people the contents of the original textbook and those revised by the erstwhile Congress and the present BJP governments.

This was decided in an attempt to quell the controversy over the textbook revision across the state.
The minister said the government is open for further revision if there is any objectionable content in the revised textbooks, after taking into account the collective opinion expressed by the people.
“We will place in public domain the contents of  the original textbook that was prepared by Mudambadithaya committee, the revised textbooks during Siddaramaiah’s tenure and our tenure,” he said.

Speaking to reporters after meeting Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, he said the government is open to reviewing the books if people feel that there are mistakes in them.
The Minister accused the opposition of trying to politicise the issue despite clarifications promising to restore the chapter on Basavanna to its earlier form and reintroduction of a line in a chapter on Ambedkar.

“We are ready to face political challenges politically in the days to come,” he said.
Further suggesting that let people tell whether it is wrong to include a chapter on Kempegowda or Kuvempu and his works, the minister said, “Let people say if they wanted chapters on Tipu Sultan to continue in the earlier form. Let them say the introduction of sex education for class seven students under previous regime was right or removing a poem on Kannada flag was a right decision.”