Govt forms another panel to correct blunders of Rohit committee

Shyam Sundar Vattam | NT
Bengaluru

To undo the glaring mistakes committed by the previous Textbook Revision Committee headed by Rohit Chakrateertha in textbooks from 1st to 10th standard, the state government has set up another panel to make the necessary changes in textbooks.

To avoid a fresh controversy, this time, the government has included in the panel experienced principals of DIET institutes and a group of veteran teachers with no political leanings. The blunders committed by the Chakrateertha Committee on Textbook revision had embarrassed the BJP government headed by Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai and the Opposition parties used this as a stick to target the government.

The morchas by several political parties, organisations and individuals had embarrassed the government. Recently, former prime minister and JD(S) supremo H.D. Deve Gowda had written a letter to Bommai to set right the blunders in textbooks as it would mislead children.

Responding to Deve Gowda, a contemporary of his late father and former CM, S.R. Bommai, the CM had promised to look into the issue seriously. Now, the government has set up another committee comprising noncontroversial persons, to undone the flaws.

In a bid to divert the blame to the previous Congress government headed by then CM Siddaramaiah, primary and secondary education minister B.C.Nagesh had released a document highlighting the blunders of the earlier Textbook Revision committee headed by Prof Baragur Ramachandrappa. But this act of the government was seen as an attempt to show that it was not the incumbent government that had messed up things but the Baragur Ramachandrappa panel too was responsible.

To put an end to the raging controversy, the CM has authorised subject experts and apolitical DIET principals and teachers to make the necessary changes at the earliest. Several senior BJP ministers have defended the formation of yet another committee and one among them is Revenue Minister R. Ashok. He claimed that the purpose of one more committee was to incorporate certain chapters which were deleted by the Siddaramaiah government.