The government of Karnataka, led by the Congress, has proposed a revision of school textbooks, leading to a heated political debate between the ruling party and the opposition led by the BJP. As part of this revision, the Karnataka government intends to eliminate a chapter dedicated to Dr. Keshav Baliram Hedgewar, the founder of the RSS.
BJP had introduced chapter on Hedgewar
According to reports, the current Congress-led Karnataka government has made the decision to remove a chapter on Dr. Hedgewar from the Class 10 Kannada textbook. This chapter had been introduced in the state syllabus during the previous BJP government's tenure. The Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and School Education Minister Madhu Bangarappa reportedly reached this decision during a meeting focused on educational reforms in Bengaluru.
Can change syllabus, but not history: CT Ravi
The BJP has slammed the Congress government's decision to revamp the curriculum with the intent to remove Sangh’s alleged contribution. BJP’s National General Secretary CT Ravi, in an interview to news agency ANI, said, “They (Congress) can change syllabus, they’re in power but they can’t change the history. Everyone knows about Sangh Parivaar’s patriotism…everywhere Sangh Parivaar’s ideology is getting stronger, that can’t be changed…our ideology is patriotism and does Congress want to eliminate patriotism and want to make this ‘Mughalistaan’?”
The Congress party had made a promise in its election manifesto to reverse the alterations made in the school textbooks by the previous BJP government. It was further reported that lessons written by Chakravarti Sulibele and Bannanje Govindacharya might also be eliminated from the curriculum.
Coward, fake freedom fighter: Congress leader
After assuming the position of Chief Minister, Siddaramaiah was approached by a collective of intellectuals, consisting of K Marulasiddappa, SG Siddaramaiah, and Vasundhara Bhoopati, who appealed to him to retract the revised textbooks introduced by the previous BJP government.
According to Congress MLC BK Hariprasad, the Karnataka government has decided against incorporating the life stories of individuals like Dr. Hedgewar into the school curriculum. Hariprasad went on to label the RSS founder as a "coward" and a "fake freedom fighter." He emphasised that the functioning of government departments would not be influenced by the ideology of the Sangh Parivar.
