Punjab Assembly Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan on Sunday said he would recommend to the state government to register an FIR against the publishers of three books banned by the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB). He said the FIR would also include those officials who had approved the book to be included in the syllabus.
On May 1, PSEB had banned three books for distorting facts related to Sikh history, news agency PTI reported. The three books that were banned were – Modern ABC of History of Punjab by Manjit Singh Sodhi, History of Punjab by Mahinderpal Kaur, and History of Punjab by MS Mann. These three books were included in PSEB’s 12th class history syllabus.
The ban was imposed after an inquiry committee was constituted to probe the matter. The investigation was a result of a complaint lodged by Baldev Singh Sirsa, leader of the United Kisan Morcha, who was protesting in the PSEB premises.
As reported by The Tribune, the Punjab president had gone to the campus to urge Sirsa to withdraw the protests, during which he demanded registration of an FIR against the officials who cleared the books and their publishers. The protest was lifted after assurance to the farmer leader of Sandhwan.
The matter has been in the mills for months and there have been several protests outside the PSEB office demanding a ban on books for tampering with facts related to Sikh history.
Punjab MLA Gurmeet Singh Meet Hare tweeted on Sunday, “Sikh history is invaluable for all of us and for generations to come. Misrepresented facts about Sikh history have been shown as ‘History of Punjab’ in class 12th.” He said that under the direction of Chief Minister of Punjab Bhagwant Mann, action would be ordered against the publishers and authors of the book.
, 12ਵੀਂ ‘History of Punjab’ ‘ .CM @Bhagwant Mann Gurmeet Singh Meets Hair (@meet_hayer) 1 May 2022
On the same day, PSEB chairman Yograj Singh also confirmed that the books have been banned for allegedly misrepresenting Sikh history.
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