Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

‘CPI(M) is against democracy’

Thiruvananthapuram: Congress leader Joseph Vazhakkan has accused Communist Party of India (Marxist) of spreading falsehood through textbooks to indoctrinate students in Communist ideals.

Inaugurating a Kerala Students Union (KSU) demonstration demanding the withdrawal of the controversial class VII textbook, Mr. Vazhakkan said the CPI(M)-dominated curriculum committee, which decides textbooks, had negated the role of even Mahatma Gandhi in the independence struggle that gave birth to the democratic, pluralistic and secular India.

He said the CPM was against democracy and rituals and practices of different religious and ethnic groups. He said the KSU had scored a moral victory over the CPM. The Left Democratic Front government has withdrawn the controversial portion in the class VII textbook in the face of public wrath.

He said the democrats in the State wanted the KSU to go ahead with its agitation. The CPM should withdraw the entire textbook and draft a new one in its place, Mr. Vazhakkan said.

P.C. Vishnunath, MLA, said the textbook was drafted by a committee including two members of Education Minister M. A. Baby’s personal staff.

He said the government was attempting to introduce a new textbook with cosmetic changes.

The Opposition will not allow such a move. The CPM had included ‘never heard-of- agitations like ‘Tholu Viraku Samaram in Kannur district’ in school textbooks. The same textbooks give scarce mention to historic struggles in the country, Mr. Vishnunath said.

KSU State president Haiby Eden said the Opposition student’s organisation will launch an alternate curriculum for school students this week.

The KSU activists staged demonstration and dispersed after the protest march.

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‘CPI(M) is against democracy’

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