Rajasthan Government recalls textbooks on 2002 Godhra carnage

The Rajasthan Government has recalled four school textbooks, one of which contained chapters on the 2002 Godhra train carnage and its aftermath. This has led to a political slugfest between the BJP and the Congress.

While the Rajasthan School Education Council has recalled the textbooks citing technical deficiencies, State Education Minister Madan Dilawar contended that the killers were glorified in the Godhra incident and accused the previous Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government of misleading the children by giving wrong information about the incident.

“Lies are being spread about the Godhra incident and society is being divided. Those who burnt the train in Godhra are being glorified as Hindus and they are being referred to as criminals. Wrong things have been mentioned about the then Gujarat Government,” he said.

The state Education Department had instructed District Education Officers (DEOs) to ensure the return of all copies of ‘Jivan ki Bahar’ and ‘Chitti - Ek Kutta aur Uska Jungle Farm’ (for classes IX to XII), and ‘Adrishya Log - Umeed aur Sahas ki Kahaniya’ along with another copy of ‘Jivan ki Bahar’ (for classes XI and XII).

One of the books ‘Adrishya Log – Umeed aur Sahas ki Kahaniya’ was written by former IPS Harsh Mander. It was mentioned that the Gujarat Government initially claimed the Godhra fire was the result of a terrorist conspiracy and states that this was not proven in the high court, Supreme Court, or special courts.

Gehlot said, “Madan Dilawar can say anything. The CM has not commented on it, so what can I say? There should be a committee which decides what to add or remove from the syllabus.”