‘India’s students should know…': Asaduddin Owaisi on ‘tweaks’ in NCERT textbooks

Asaduddin Owaisi became the latest opposition politician to object to the NCERT's move to tweak its textbooks, as he specifically pointed to changes made with respect to the Babri Masjid and the larger Ayodhya issue.

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India's children must know that the Supreme Court, while deciding the Ayodhya issue, called the demolition of the mosque an ‘egregious crime,’ the AIMIM chief said on Monday.

“The NCERT has decided to replace Babri Masjid with the words ‘three domed structure.’ It has also decided to call the Ayodhya judgment an example of ‘consensus.’ India's children must know that the Supreme Court called the demolition an egregious criminal act,” the Hyderabad MP posted on X (formerly Twitter).

“India's children should know that a functioning masjid was desecrated in 1949 and then demolished by a mob in 1992. They should not grow up glorifying criminal acts,” Owaisi added.

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What is the controversy?

The National Council of Educational Research and Training's (NCERT) newly revised Class 12 political science textbooks feature numerous deletions and changes from the earlier versions. For example, as pointed out by Owaisi, the Babri Masjid is not mentioned directly; it is referred to as a ‘three-dome structure.’

Also, the council has pruned the Ayodhya section from four to two pages.

Defending the move, NCERT director Dinesh Prasad Saklani sought to know if textbooks should ‘teach about riots.’

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“We want to create positive citizens, not violent and depressed individuals. Let the students understand what happened and why it happened, but when they grow up. The hue and cry about the changes is irrelevant,” the NCERT chief told PTI in an earlier interview.