After furore over ‘selected deletion’ of lessons relating to Tipu Sultan, Prophet Mohammad, Jesus Christ and the Constitution, among others, TNM has learnt that the Minister of Primary & Secondary Education, Suresh Kumar has instructed Karnataka Textbook Society (KTBS) to put the syllabi trimming plan to be kept on hold. Opposition parties and several intellectuals had accused the BJP government in Karnataka of using the opportunity of a shortened academic year to further their political agenda.
On Tuesday, Karnataka Congress Chief and former minister DK Shivakumar had accused the BJP of pushing their ‘right-wing’ agenda and hate for historical figures like Tipu Sultan and Hyder Ali. DK Shivakumar had also said that he will constitute a committee to look into these ‘mischievous deletions’ and will take up the issue with the state government strongly.
This, after the Department of State Education Research and Training (DSERT) recommended that some chapters in Social Studies textbooks relating to history of Mysuru during the time of Tipu Sultan and Hyder Ali, as well as the Constitution, Prophet Mohammed, Jesus Christ, amongst others be deleted and substituted through online assignments to compensate for the loss of school days.
The 30% cut in the syllabus was recommended as schools are expected to reopen only on September 1 across Karnataka due to the pandemic. The school academic year for 2020-2021 has been shortened to 120 days now.
There were several attempts made by leaders of BJP, after the party returned to power in 2019, to have references to Tipu Sultan omitted from school lessons. At that time, drafting committee for text books in Karnataka had resisted the move an d the issue had been put on the back burner.
While BJP, yesterday, had defended the move claiming that there was no malintention in deleting the chapters and lessons on Tipu will continue to feature for other classes under the state board syllabus, today’s move by the minister seems to be taken under pressure, to avoid a controversy.