Aryans were beef eaters: NCERT

New Delhi, May 28 (UNI) Refusing to delete objectionable content from the school books, the NCERT has submitted before the Delhi High Court that the Aryans, including the 'Brahmins', were beef eaters in the ancient days.

Appearing before a division bench headed by Justice M K Sharma, NCERT Counsel Prashant Bhusan said, ''The three-member expert committee opined that Aryans were beef eaters and the Council could not distort historical facts by deleting the paragraphs.'' The Arya Mahasabha and Brahman Samaj opposed the submission by the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) and sought the direction of the court for the deletion of the remarks, saying it had bad impact on the young students.

''Cows are worshipped by the Aryans and Hindus since the Vedic period and nobody should be allowed to distort the facts,'' said the Arya Mahasabha.

Adjourning the matter till July 26, the Court directed the NCERT, the government's book research wing, to file a status report on the objections by the petitioners.

However, filing the committee report before the court, the NCERT said out of the 70 objectionable items, 37 were in the books which had been replaced from this year.

The Expert Committee did not find anything objectionable in 29 content and would continue to be in the school syllabus. But four objectionable paragraphs would be modified from next year, said Mr Bhushan.

The PIL filed by petitioner Dinanath Batra alleged that the books depict freedom fighters such as Lala Lajpat Rai, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Bipin Chandra Pal, Arabindo Ghosh and Bhagat Singh as ''militants'' in history and social science books prescribed in the secondary school curricula.

The minds of the children are being subjected to biased, distorted, wrong, unfounded and incorrect information in contravention to the principles of secularism, said the petition.

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