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Notice to TN govt over removal of RSS reference in textbook
Wondering on what basis the government excludes historical facts like the RSS being anti-Muslim, the Madras High Court on Wednesday ordered notice to the Tamil Nadu government on a plea seeking to restrain the Director, State Counsel for Education Research and Training (SCERT), from removing a paragraph in the Class 10 social science textbook which states that “the Hindu Mahasabha and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) took a pronounced anti-Muslim stance.”
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Chennai
A division bench comprising Justices M Sathyanarayanan and R Hemalatha, before whom the plea came up for hearing, orally observed that just as how the history of Hitler and China waging a war against India cannot be hidden, so the anti-Muslim stance of the RSS is a well-known fact and it cannot be hidden.
Also, the bench on seeking clarity as to whether there is a system in place while making corrections in textbooks, ordered notice to the Tamil Nadu government seeking explanation for the same and posted the plea for further hearing to March 19.
S Doraisamy, an advocate and vice-president of the Thanthai Periyar Dravidar Kalagam, had submitted that based on a plea moved by RSS member P Chandrasekaran, which sought to remove the said paragraph citing it to be baseless and as lowering the image of the RSS in the minds of young people, a single judge had merely asked the government to explain the scope of deleting it.
The judge had directed the Tamil Nadu Textbook and Educational Services Corporation and the SCERT to file an affidavit explaining the manner and the time within which the objectionable portions would be deleted from the textbooks already supplied to the students for the current academic year.
But TNSCERT on January 10 issued a circular that the above portions would be deleted during the next printing of the book and stickers will be pasted on the portion on the books already published.
Based on this, Doraisamy moved the plea contending that as a true Indian, he is against twisting the history of India and that the passages that appeared in the textbooks are not false and should not be removed as it is a historical fact.
The younger generation should know the history of the land. It should not be screened on the request of a member of the RSS and the SCERT has no authority to remove the above portions suo motu which was approved by the Committee for Textbooks appointed by the Government of Tamil Nadu, Doraisamy said.
That apart, the said portions in the textbook are true happenings in the history of India and hence the government circular mentioning to delete the same is liable to be set aside, the petitioner added.
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