New Delhi:
The debate over the cartoons in National Council Of Educational Research And Training (NCERT) textbooks is far from over. The academic year is already underway but schools will have to wait at least till the end of this month to get their political science textbooks in hand.
The National Monitoring Committee is said to be 'disappointed' with the recommendations of the Thorat Committee and finds the recommendations inadequate. The Thorat Committee report was submitted to the NCERT on June 27. The report recommended the deletion of some 40 cartoons which it believed sent a 'wrong message'.
After a marathon meeting today the National Monitoring Committee (NMC), which reports to the Human Resource and Development (HRD) ministry has decided to set up a sub-committee to draft a report on the Thorat Committee recommendations in three to four days. "We found the recommendations thoroughly inadequate and have set up a sub-committee to give its draft soon," said Professor Zoya Hassan, a member of the NMC. But does this mean the recommendations of the Thorat Committee will be entirely over-ruled by the NMC? Sources present at the meeting say, "not a single person defended the Thorat Committee recommendations and members were disappointed on all fronts of the report."
But given the public outrage over the cartoons including the one on BR Ambedkar and the anti-Hindi cartoon, the NMC is of the view that "small required changes will be made to the text books" says the source. HRD minister Kapil Sibal faced a fuming opposition during the monsoon session of Parliament following the Ambedkar cartoon controversy. Two members of the textbook committee, which sourced cartoons for the textbooks, resigned from the committee in protest over the outrage. The Thorat Committee was set up soon after by the NCERT and given a month's time to give its recommendations on the cartoons in all political science text books.
A month later the recommendations by the Thorat Committee that included prominent academicians and personalities from other fields seems to hold no ground.
The final authority on the textbooks will be with the NCERT, which will consult the textbook committee on what stays and what gets deleted from the books. But sources say students may have to wait till the end of this month for their political science text books.