Objecting to the use of their names in the textbooks, political activists Yogendra Yadav and Suhas Palshikar wrote to NCERT on Monday. They threatened legal action against the organisation if their names were not withdrawn immediately.
In their letter, Palshikar and Yadav stated they do not want the NCERT to "hide" behind their names to present students with political science textbooks that are "politically biased, academically indefensible and pedagogically dysfunctional".
"Besides the earlier practice of selective deletions, the NCERT has resorted to significant additions and rewriting that are out of sync with the spirit of the original textbooks the NCERT has no moral or legal right to distort these textbooks without consulting any of us and yet publish these under our names despite our explicit refusal," the letter said.
"There can be arguments and debates about someone's claims to authorship of any given work. But it is bizarre that authors and editors are forced to associate their names with a work they no longer identify as their own," it added.
Last year, Palshikar and Yadav, chief advisors for political science textbooks, demanded the NCERT to drop their names from the books as they claimed the rationalisation exercise has "mutilated" the books beyond recognition. It had made them"academically dysfunctional,” they said.
The textbooks once a source of pride had become a source of embarrassment, they stated.
"Both of us do not want the NCERT to hide behind our names to pass on to students such textbooks of political science that we find politically biased, academically indefensible and pedagogically dysfunctional.
The deletions in the textbooks include the BJP’s ‘rath yatra’ from Gujarat to Ayodhya, the role of kar sevaks, communal violence sparked by the demolition of the Babri Masjid and President’s rule in BJP-ruled states.
"The new editions of these books that have been published with our names should be withdrawn from the market forthwith If the NCERT fails to take immediate corrective action, we may be forced to take legal recourse," the letter said.
Meanwhile, refuting accusations of saffronisation of the school curriculum, NCERT's director Dinesh Prasad Saklani has said that references to Gujarat riots and Babri masjid demolition were modified in school textbooks because teaching about riots "can create violent and depressed citizens.”
(With PTI inputs)
