Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar has sought to distance the party from the controversy surrounding the removal of certain chapters on RSS Founder Keshav Baliram Hedgewar from the class 10 textbook.
“Let us not discuss issues on emotions, let us only discuss issues of development. Emotional issues do not have any value and we must remember that India is a land of diversity. We don’t want to go to any polarisation issue and we leave that chapter to BJP, ” Shivakumar was quoted as saying by news agency PTI
The Congress Karnataka president also spoke about his party’s poll promise to ban organizations like the Bajrang Dal, he said, “Any organisation which tries to bring unrest, destroy the peace of the state…we are looking into them and we will set an example. No moral policing will be allowed and no one should unnecessarily create confusion in the minds of the people. Karnataka is a developing state and we would restore peace
Shivakumar’s statement comes just days ahead of a remark by his colleague MLC BK Hariprasad who had questioned why a ‘coward’ like Hedgewar should be given space in the state’s textbooks. He said, “BJP and RSS claim that Hedgewar is a freedom fighter. If that is the case, they need to clearly tell why he gave apology letters to the British six times. Hedgewar himself has written in a book ‘Chitragupta’ why he sought an apology. We can’t keep stories of such cowards in our textbooks,”
Meanwhile, BJP General Secretary and former Karnataka MLA CT Ravi has hit back at the state government saying that the Congress can change the syllabus while they are in power but they can’t change the history.
The Congress had promised in its election manifesto to reverse the changes in the school curriculum introduced by the previous BJP government and to scrap the National Education Policy (NEP) in the state.
(With inputs from agencies)
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Updated: 11 Jun 2023, 07:53 AM IST