References to Maulana Azad in class 11 textbook dropped in 2013: NCERT

The National Council of Educational Research and Training has said that the references to freedom fighter and India's first education minister Maulana Azad in class 11 NCERT textbook were omitted in 2013.

The NCERT's decision to remove certain references without notification had created a controversy as Congress accused the ruling BJP of "whitewashing with vengeance".

"While exploring the matter in earlier editions of the textbook, it was found that from 2014-15 onwards the name of Maulana Azad was not there in the referred para. This textbook for the session 2014-15 was finalised for printing in October 2013 as per the record of the Publication Division. It should not be linked to the current rationalisation exercise," PTI quoted a top NCERT official as saying.

On asking whether the changes were notified then, the official said, "This was done as a regular practice of reprinting of NCERT textbooks which includes updating and correcting the information."

In the class 11 Political Science textbook's first chapter, titled 'Constitution - Why and How', a line about Constituent Assembly meetings, which now reads "Usually, Jawaharlal Nehru, Rajendra Prasad, Sardar Patel or BR Ambedkar chaired these Committees," previously had mention of Azad too.

"Gandhiji's death had magical effect on communal situation in the country", "Gandhi's pursuit of Hindu-Muslim unity provoked Hindu extremists" and "Organisations like RSS were banned for some time" are among the texts missing from the class 12 Political Science textbook for the new academic session.

The NCERT, citing "overlapping" and "irrelevant" as reasons, had done away with some portions including Gujarat riots, Mughal courts, Emergency, Cold War and Naxalite movements from its textbooks, last year.

At the heart of the present row is the fact that while the changes made as part of the rationalisation exercise were notified, some of these controversial deletions weren't mentioned in them. This has led to allegations about a bid to delete these portions surreptitiously.

The NCERT has described the omissions as a possible oversight but refused to undo the deletions, saying they were based on the recommendations of experts.

With inputs from PTI