To
Mr Kapil Sibal
Honourable Minister of Human Resources Development
Government of India
New Delhi
Sub: NCERT Class
XI Text book-Dr. Ambedkar Cartoon – reg.
Respected Sir
On behalf of Viduthalai Ciruthaikal Katchi (VCK) – the only
Dalit party in UPA- I want to submit the following for your kind consideration:
First of all I appreciate the UPA government for its quick
action in appointing a committee to consider the apprehensions raised by me and
other members in Parliament over the Ambedkar cartoon published in the NCERT
class XI text book.
I also want to appreciate the efforts taken by UPA
government to reform our educational system and the academics who were involved
in drafting the NCF 2005 under the chairmanship of Mr Yashpal. The text books
produced by NCERT are comparatively good. No doubt they are very helpful for
the students in opening up their creativity. The text books were designed to
change the ‘banking approach ‘in education and try to use classrooms to ‘conscientize’
not only students and also teachers.
But, these are not reasons for obstructing us from fair
criticism of the text books. It is also a fact that we have no public forum to
discuss about our text books. That’s why the delay in finding out the ‘objectionable
cartoon’ in the class XI text book.
In general the book ‘constitution at work ‘is good. But the
cartoon drawn by Shankar is inappropriate for the book and in bad taste. It
unnecessarily orients the attention of the student to an unjust remark about
our constitution. I agree, the framing of our constitution have taken almost
three years. But describing it as delay is malicious. The cartoon not only
ridicules Ambedkar but also our constitution. It depicts our constitution as a
snail.
The great revolutionary Dr Ambedkar has explained the
reasons for the ‘delay’ when he spoke at the Constituent Assembly itself. Here
is the quote:
“At one stage it was
being said that the Assembly had taken too long a time to finish its work, that
it was going on leisurely and wasting public money. It was said to be a case of
Nero fiddling while Rome was burning. Is there any justification for this
complaint? Let us note the time consumed by Constituent Assemblies in other
countries appointed for framing their Constitutions. To take a few illustrations,
the American Convention met on May 25th, 1787 and completed its work
on September 17, 1787 i.e., within four months. The Constitutional
Convention of Canada met on the 10th October 1864 and the
Constitution was passed into law in March 1867 involving a period of two years
and five months. The Australian Constitutional Convention assembled in March
1891 and the Constitution became law on the 9th July 1900,
consuming a period of nine years. The South African Convention met in October,
1908 and the Constitution became law on the 20th September 1909
involving one year's labour. It is true that we have taken more time than what
the American or South African Conventions did. But we have not taken more time
than the Canadian Convention and much less than the Australian Convention. In
making comparisons on the basis of time consumed, two things must be
remembered. One is that the Constitutions of America, Canada, South Africa and
Australia are much smaller than ours. Our Constitution as I said contains 395 articles
while the American has just seven articles, the first four of which are divided
into sections which total up to 21, the Canadian has 147, Australian 128 and
South African 153 sections. The second thing to be remembered is that the
makers of the Constitutions of America, Canada, Australia and South Africa did
not have to face the problem of amendments. They were passed as moved. On the
other hand, this Constituent Assembly had to deal with as many as 2,473
amendments. Having regard to these facts the charge of dilatoriness seems to me
quite unfounded and this Assembly may well congratulate itself for having
accomplished so formidable a task in so short a time.” (http://parliamentofindia.nic.in/ls/debates/vol11p11.htm)
This is nothing but a fittest reply to people like Shankar.
I was shocked to know that even after reading this explanation our academics
preferred to publish the cartoon.
In the light of the above facts I put forth the following demands:
1. Shankar’s
cartoon ridiculing Ambedkar is inappropriate to the lesson. So remove it from
the text book. The text book did not mention Dr Ambedkar as the chairman of the
Drafting Committee. This is a clear case of suppression of the fact. I request
you to mention the above fact and add a few lines about the contributions of Dr
Ambedkar in drafting the constitution.
2. The
problem is not with the cartoon only. There are anomalies in the texts also. So
I request you to advice the review committee to look in to the texts of the
text books.
3. The
time limit given to the review committee is inadequate. So, I request you to
give at least three months to the committee to finish its present task.
4. I
see no fair representation in the committees who designed the text books. So, I
request there should be a fair representation in all the committees set up by
NCERT and NKC etc.
5. You
aware the education is the primary tool in shaping our ideology. It is one of
the ‘ideological state apparatuses’. But, there is no adequate representation
of Dalits, Minorities and Women in our institutions of higher education. So, I
request the UPA government to take immediate steps to provide reservation in
Senates and Syndicates of our Central Universities.
6. I
see a disturbing silence in the NCERT text books over the dangers of
Communalism. For example in the class X text book ‘ Democratic Politics- II’ they
gave about seven pages each to explain gender and caste issues but gave only
two and a half pages for communalism. They did not mention a single word about
the demolition of Babri Masjid or Gujarat riots. This kind of self censorship over the
communalism prevails all over the text books. So, I request you to take steps
to give correct picture of our society to the students.
7. Reviewing
only the social science/political science text books is not enough. The ‘Thorat
committee’ set up by NCERT to review the text books should be expanded and the
terms and references must be widened. It must be assigned to review all NCERT
text books.
8. I
request you to issue a proper order to all the State governments to set up
committees of academics and social scientists to review their text books.
Thanking You
Yours truly
( Thol.Thirumaavalavan )
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