SAD rejects probe ordered by minister Soni, demands independent inquiry

The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Wednesday rejected the inquiry ordered by school education minister OP Soni to fix responsibility for the “mistakes” in the Class-12 history book.

In a statement, SAD senior vice-president Daljit Singh Cheema called it a cover-up, questioning the rationale behind the minister’s order when he had been blamed by the chairman of the oversight committee that prepared the content. Instead the minister ordering an inquiry, chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh should have instituted a probe by a retired judge of the Punjab and Haryana high court, he said, asking how a “subordinate officer of the department under Soni” could be objective and impartial in conducting the inquiry.

HT had on Tuesday published a story on the minister’s directive to the school education secretary to look into the matter and give the report within a week. Soni, while categorically denying any role, had accused the SAD of politicising history textbooks because it did not have anything to say against the government.

There was no controversy as the government had already withdrawn the content and told the Punjab School Education Board to continue with last year’s textbooks during the current session, said the school education minister.

The state government had come under fire from the SAD and others in May 2018 over deletion of Sikh history from Classes 11 and 12 textbooks.

The release of textbooks was put on hold and a six-member expert committee was constituted to design the curriculum and revise the content of textbooks accordingly. The committee released five chapters and faced flak for allegedly “distorting history”.

SONI ACCUSES SAD OF POLITICISING HISTORY TEXTBOOKS AS IT DOES NOT HAVE ANYTHING TO SAY AGAINST THE STATE GOVERNMENT