Chapter on Bharatiya Kisan Union Deleted From NCERT Textbook
Rakesh Tikait. Image Courtesy: PTI
The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has removed a chapter from the Class XII political science textbook about a popular movement involving the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU).
The chapter, titled 'Rise of Popular Movements', discussed the rise of the BKU in the late 1980s and its disciplined agitation of 1988 in New Delhi.
The removal of this chapter has been criticised by the BKU. The organisation plans to meet with the Centre over the issue.
One of the removed lines talked about how the BKU was a leading organisation in the farmers' movement of the 1980s.
Mahendra Singh Tikait, who was the father of the farmers' leader Rakesh Tikait, founded the BKU.
Some political experts believe that the deletion is related to the yearlong farmers' agitation against the three farm laws at Delhi borders. BKU was part of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha that led the movement, which ended in December 2021 after the laws were revoked.
The NCERT claims that the contents were removed during the rationalisation of textbooks last year, but new textbooks were issued to students this academic session.
Rakesh Tikait has expressed his condemnation of the deletion and plans to meet with the Central government over the issue.
He believes that the government wants to replace factual history with its own narrative and has already written to the Union Education Minister requesting the re-introduction of the deleted contents in the textbooks.
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