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Offending remarks removed from textbooks

Special Correspondent

"Derogatory" comments on Jat community in NCERT syllabus resented by Hooda

CHANDIGARH: The Haryana Government has completely expunged the text relating to controversial remarks against "Jats" from the syllabus of classes VIII and XII with immediate effect.

Disclosing this here on Thursday, Education Minister Phool Chand Mullana said that the objectionable text had been removed from the Social Science textbook (Part-I) prescribed by the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) for Class VIII and Modern India prescribed for Class XII. He said that this had been done on the directions of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

Mr. Hooda had also shot off a letter to Union Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh on Wednesday registering his protest against "derogatory'' remarks against the Jat community from the NCERT textbooks and seeking their immediate removal.

In his letter, Mr. Hooda urged the Union Minister to thoroughly screen all NCERT publications and expunge all derogatory remarks mentioned in these publications about any community, creed or region of the country.

Mr. Hooda drew his attention to the unsavoury and unwarranted controversy over derogatory words used for the Jat community in the NCERT book prescribed for Class VIII for the past several years.

Mr. Hooda said such remarks about any Indian community vitiated the minds of the students and weakened the diverse social fabric of India, which in turn undermined national unity and integrity.

The Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda wrote: "Historically, Jats are a hard-working, honest and patriotic peasant community which have always made tremendous sacrifices for the Indian society and nation. The undesired and undeserved comments have hurt the sentiments of the community. I may also point out that such distortions of historical facts also appear in several other publications of the NCERT."

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