Bihar education minister irked by dropping of chapters on non-alignment, Islamic empires by CBSE

Express News Service

PATNA: Bihar’s two ruling allies — the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Janata Dal United (JDU) — have locked horns over the CBSE dropping chapters about the Non-Aligned Movement and the rise of Islamic empires in Indo-African territories among others from the history and political science syllabi of Classes 11th and 12th.

Besides these, the CBSE has also proposed to drop chapters about the Cold War era, the chronicles of Mughals and the Industrial Revolution.

Contending that there was no justification for dropping these chapters, Bihar education minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary said on Monday that he had no official information about CBSE dropping the chapters from the history and political science syllabi of Classes 11th and 12th.

He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had opened a Prime Minister’s Museum as the coming generation would be able to know about the country’s history by visiting it. Children would also know about the Non-Aligned Movement and Mughal rule, he added.

Chaudhary said that the Non-Aligned Movement was led by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and later the Shimla agreement was signed. Even now when any discussion is held with Pakistan, the neighbouring country is reminded of the Shimla agreement, he added.

“We know about old issues only because we read history, there is no justification for removing these chapters from the CBSE syllabi,” Chaudhary, who is considered close to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, said.

However, labour resources minister Jibesh Kumar said that the CBSE’s think thank had done a beautiful job by dropping those chapters. He said the presentation of distorted facts in history textbooks was against cultural nationalism. “The chapters covering distorted history were an insult to the nation and should be definitely dropped,” he contended.

He asserted that children should be taught the glorious history of the country. The main opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal also raised objection over removal of chapters from the CBSE’s syllabi. Leader of opposition Tejashwi Prasad Yadav said it was a wrong precedent.