K’taka disbands textbook panel to revise chapters

Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Friday said that the textbook review committee has been “disbanded” as its designated work was completed, and the government is open to further revision if there is any objectionable content.

It has also been decided to make appropriate revisions to the chapter on 12th-century social reformer Basavanna, regarding which objections have been raised by several prominent personalities and seers.

The Chief Minister issued a press statement following a raging controversy over school textbooks that were recently revised. There have been demands for sacking the textbook review committee chief Rohith Chakratirtha for allegedly ‘saffronising’ school textbooks by including in them a lesson on RSS founder Keshav Baliram Hedgewar’s speech and omitting chapters on key figures like freedom fighters, social reformers, and writings of noted literary figures.

There are also allegations of erroneous content on Basavanna and certain factual errors in the textbooks, including accusations of disrespecting ‘Raashtra Kavi’ (national poet) Kuvempu and distortion of the state anthem penned by him.

Clarifying that the distorted state anthem is not part of any text book, the Chief Minister said the government has asked the cyber crime team to inquire into it and take action against those behind it.

He said the Kannada textbooks that were revised by the previous textbook review committee - headed by Prof Baraguru Ramachandrappa (during Congress govt) -had only seven essays or poems related to Kuvempu, while their number has been increased to 10 in the ones revised by the current committee.