Nehru nightmare: Chouhan demands syllabi review

Bhopal, June 22: Demanding another review of school syllabi across the country, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan today said the syllabi should have a place for not just one towering personality but every personage who participated in the freedom struggle and also those who played crucial roles in the nation's uplift.

''The chapter entitled 'Freedom Struggle', in the Central Board of Secondary Education's tenth-standard textbook, incorporates about ten pictures of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru while there are only two pictures of the Father of the Nation,'' he told reporters at his residence here.

Pointing out that the textbook did not even mention Chandrashekhar Azad, Shaheed Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, Sukhdev, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Dr B R Ambedkar, Mr Chouhan added that the issue ought not to be linked with either any ideology or party.

The state's main opposition Congress staged a vociferous protest against modification in the primary and secondary classes' syllabi whereby a poem and a lesson, on the country's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and his wife Kamla, were allegedly deleted.

''It is not proper to propagate a single family through syllabi. There should not be any message that makes it appear as if one family's generations are in the leadership role,'' the chief minister said.

Describing the Congress objection as baseless, Mr Chouhan felt that Pt Nehru was not the kind of personality who merited removal from syllabi. ''In the second-standard 'Bal Bharti' textbook, the lesson entitled 'Gubbare Wala' concerns Pt Nehru and same is the case with the lesson 'Pita ke Putra Putri ke Naam' in class four. The fifth-standard English textbook, class six 'Bal Bharti', seventh and eighth-standard books also contain lessons linked with him,'' he claimed.

Two lessons on Pt Nehru have actually been added. Changes in the syllabi were also effected in view of a Supreme Court ruling. The apex court said syllabi should provide more and more on the environment and children's surroundings.

''Madhya Pradesh-born Azad and tribal hero Tantya Bhil should feature in syllabi. The number of lessons and poems on Pt Nehru are more than enough,'' the chief minister added.

UNI