Cleric objects to removal of chapter on Babri in NCERT books

Bareilly (UP) : Maulana Mufti Shahabuddin Razvi Barelvi, National President of All India Muslim Jamaat, has said that the removal of chapters on Babri Masjid and Gujarat riots from Class 12 books of NCERT, amounts to tampering with history which is regrettable.

He said that earlier, the history of Mughal emperors was also removed from the pages of the book, and the chapter on the rise of Islam has also been removed.

The Maulana, in a statement, further said it proves that the people sitting in the NCERT board want to erase the signs of Muslims, and are promoting a particular viewpoint and thinking, but this is not going to last long.

The Maulana said that history is history, the more you suppress it, the more it will come to the fore. People who blur and scratch history have never been successful. The historians of the present time want to create a new history in the country with their new ideology, but they cannot succeed.

It may be recalled that the NCERT has introduced several significant changes in the Class 12 Political Science textbook, which are now available in the market. The most notable change is the removal of the term "Babri Masjid," which has now been referred to as a "three-domed structure" in the new edition. Additionally, the chapter on Ayodhya has been condensed from four pages to two.

NCERT Director Dinesh Prasad Saklani said that it was not an attempt to saffronise books.

"We don’t follow any ideology when we publish books. Experts have done what they thought was fit for the syllabus," he said.

On being asked about the removal of references to Babri Masjid from the book, he said, "We have gone with what the latest update on that matter is. Subject experts have deliberated and brought out the final books. The Supreme Court has now sorted out the matter and the new published excerpts show that."