New Delhi: The Opposition on Thursday accused the government of posing a threat to children's intellectual integrity by bringing revision in textbooks, with Congress MP Mohammad Jawed asserting that the Mughals ruled for about 330 years and they cannot be removed from history by just deleting their names.
Sparks flew between the treasury and opposition benches as the debate on the demands for grants for the Education Ministry took place in the Lok Sabha. While the opposition members cornered the government on issues such as paper leaks and revision of NCERT textbooks, the BJP hailed the National Education Policy 2020 and asserted the special focus in the Union Budget on skilling, entrepreneurship, innovation and employment will help India become a developed nation and a solution provider to the world.
Participating in the debate, Jawed accused the BJP of getting power by flaring anti-Muslim, anti-Dalit, anti-poor and anti-student sentiments. He also claimed that if there were no Muslims in this country, the BJP could not have opened its account.
"They should save education in the country. Just by removing the name of Mughals will not make any difference. Mughals were here for 330 years, they are not going to be removed just because you remove the name," he said.
The Kishanganj MP said the Muslims have as much intelligence as anybody else. "...we can contribute as much as anybody else. I appeal you should not discriminate."
Slamming the government on the issue of paper leak, Jawed said, "Outside Parliament, test paper are getting leaked and inside Parliament, the roof is leaking... This is the Modi sarkar."
TMC MP Pratima Mondal hit out at the government over "deletion of chapters on significant Muslim rulers" and omitting reference to 2002 Gujarat riots from NCERT curriculum, and said textbooks revision under the current government poses a threat to children's intellectual integrity.
"The systematic revision of textbooks under the current government poses a threat to our children's intellectual integrity," she said. Mondal recalled that in 2018, the then Minister of State for Education Satya Pal Singh declared Darwin's theory of evolution "scientifically wrong".
"Darwin's theory was removed from Class 9 and 10 syllabi. By 2022-23, it was removed from textbooks. Millions of students now lack formal education on a foundational theory of modern biology," she said.
"Deleting chapters on significant Muslim rulers and their contribution from the NCERT curriculum, omitting reference to events like the 2022 Gujarat riots, altering narratives around Gandhi's assassination and promoting mythological theories over scientific ones, have been widely criticised by academicians," Mondal said. These changes are leading to intellectual stagnation and political manipulation of students, the TMC MP said.
BJP's Puri MP Sambit Patra accused the opposition parties of shedding crocodile tears in the name of reservation and claimed quotas for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes were ended in Jamia Millia Islamia and Aligarh Muslim University during the Congress regime.
"The Congress will have to answer (for this)," Patra said. The Puri MP said there was a significant increase in the budget allocation for the sector.
The Union Budget for 2024-25 provided Rs 1.48 lakh crore for education, employment and skilling. The main reason for giving importance to skilling, entrepreneurship and innovation is that "India wants to go towards Viksit Bharat, we want to create the talent basket, we want to be a skill hub, we want to be a solution provider to the globe", he said.
BJP MP Tejasavi Surya lauded the government for the provisions in the budget for youths and said there has been significant development on the education front in the 10 years of the Modi-led government. He said that due to the lack of quality education, the quality of human resources that the country produced over last so many years is painfully low and inadequate.
He also said that while Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi has accused the BJP and the government of being against Dalits, tribals and OBCs, it was Congress-led governments that did not implement the Mandal Commission report for 10 years.
"If there is any party which is anti-SC, ST, OBC, it is the Congress," he said. Surya also said that the National Education Policy has addressed many challenges and stressed that the emphasis on providing education in mother tongue will help many.
Congress MP Anto Antony said education is in a "deep crisis", alleging an atmosphere of fear is forcing students to flee the country. "Today, education in India is in a deep crisis, it is facing several problems and this year's budget has no proposal or vision to address these concerns. India cannot boast of a single university in world's top 100. This should have been a matter of deep concern for a country with the largest population," Antony said.
Abdussamad Samadani, the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) MP from Kerala's Ponnani, accused the government of following a polarisation policy in education.
He claimed that the government had scrapped certain parts in some history books and said such actions were condemnable. Samajwadi Party MP Priya Saroj said the paper leak incidents had serious implications on the students and the government should strictly punish people involved in such activities.
