Congress gives in to SAD’s panthic cry on Class-12 history textbook

› Government was misled and couldn’t get timely feedback. It’s not only about the panth. It concerns every Punjabi. Can we negate the history of a place? DALJIT SINGH CHEEMA, SAD spokesman

CHANDIGARH: Capt Amarinder Singh-led Congress government seems to have succumbed after the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) raised panthic bogey on the issue of the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB)’s new Class 12 history textbook, alleging discrepancies in its content.

With the Shahkot bypoll scheduled on May 28, the issue has given a shot in the arm to SAD. Whatever the polls results, the Akalis now have at least a point to raise during the campaign. For at least 10 days since the issue surfaced, the government refused to acknowledge there was any discrepancy in the book; it gave up on Tuesday and put the book on hold.

On Monday, the government had nominated a group of Punjab history experts to study the shortcomings, gave it a status of a permanent committee that will oversee the entire history curriculum in the state-run schools.

The issue led to a war of words between the two leaders — chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh and SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal. Last week, Sukhbir and other senior Akalis pointed out shortcomings in the book being taught to the students, saying such a thing could never be tolerated by them; and on the other hand, the CM cautioned the SAD chief not to politicise the issue. “Had the government set up a committee to review the book immediately when the issue came to light, it would not have given so much leverage to the opposition parties, particularly SAD,” said a Congress leader.

When out of power, the Akalis prefer to raise panthic issues. But when in power for two terms from 2007 to 2017, they preferred to be seen as a “Punjabi party”, pushing panthic issues to the backburner.

Now, in the battle of political one-upmanship, the Akalis outsmarted the main opposition party, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which too was raising some noise, but the impact came when SAD and the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) opened battlefront on the issue. SGPC termed deletion of Guru’s mention from the book as next big attack on Sikhs after the operation blue star of 1984 on the Golden Temple.

Things went in favour of the Akalis when SGPC got aggressive, and its ‘dharam parchar’ (religious propagation) committee held a meeting on May 7, giving 10-day ultimatum to the government to settle the issue by recalling the book and set up a committee to write it afresh. The SAD has majority in SGPC.

“The entire episode could have been avoided. The government was misled on the issue and it couldn’t get timely feedback. It’s not about the panth alone; it concerns every Punjabi. Can we negate the history of a place? I do not think so,” said SAD spokesperson Daljit Singh Cheema.

“It was a non-issue. The Akalis dig out such issues when elections are around,” said Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar.