NEW DELHI: Political scientists Yogendra Yadav and Suhas Palshikar wrote to NCERT on Monday objecting to the inclusion of their names in new textbooks after they had requested removal of their names as authors from the revised versions. They warned legal action if these books were not immediately withdrawn.
Yadav and Palshikar said they did not want NCERT to use their names to endorse “politically biased, academically indefensible and pedagogically dysfunctional” political science textbooks.Last year, the former chief advisers for the political science textbooks had criticised the rationalisation exercise for “mutilating” the books beyond recognition and demanded the removal of their names.
They said textbooks, once a source of pride, had become a source of embarrassment. Despite their objections, the revised textbooks still list them as chief advisers.
Expressing shock that “more than a year after our original request, NCERT has gone ahead to publish… without removing our names”, Yadav and Palshikar said in their letter, “We are also distressed to learn that NCERT has taken a step further in its drive towards indiscriminate distortion of these textbooks. NCERT has resorted to significant additions and rewriting that are out of sync with the spirit of the original textbooks. Both of us, as chief advisers of the original textbooks, have already registered our strong disapproval of this unethical mutilation of textbooks that violate both the authors’ rights to intellectual property and the students’ right to quality education.”
They also said if NCERT considered these textbooks inappropriate, it was entirely within its rights to withdraw them and publish new versions, however, adding that it had no moral or legal right to alter these textbooks “without consulting any of us and yet publish these under our names despite our explicit refusal… it is bizarre that authors and editors are forced to associate their names with a work they no longer identify as their own”.
Last year, NCERT had said that “withdrawal of association by any one member is out of question” as the textbooks were a collective effort. NCERT director Dinesh Prasad Saklani could not be contacted for his comment. The council has once again courted controversy as its revised Class 12 political science textbook omits the mention of Babri Masjid, referring to it only as a “three-domed structure”. Other deletions include references to BJP’s ‘rath yatra’ from Somnath to Ayodhya, the role of kar sevaks and communal violence following the Babri Masjid demolition, among others.
Yadav and Palshikar said they did not want NCERT to use their names to endorse “politically biased, academically indefensible and pedagogically dysfunctional” political science textbooks.Last year, the former chief advisers for the political science textbooks had criticised the rationalisation exercise for “mutilating” the books beyond recognition and demanded the removal of their names.
They said textbooks, once a source of pride, had become a source of embarrassment. Despite their objections, the revised textbooks still list them as chief advisers.
Expressing shock that “more than a year after our original request, NCERT has gone ahead to publish… without removing our names”, Yadav and Palshikar said in their letter, “We are also distressed to learn that NCERT has taken a step further in its drive towards indiscriminate distortion of these textbooks. NCERT has resorted to significant additions and rewriting that are out of sync with the spirit of the original textbooks. Both of us, as chief advisers of the original textbooks, have already registered our strong disapproval of this unethical mutilation of textbooks that violate both the authors’ rights to intellectual property and the students’ right to quality education.”
They also said if NCERT considered these textbooks inappropriate, it was entirely within its rights to withdraw them and publish new versions, however, adding that it had no moral or legal right to alter these textbooks “without consulting any of us and yet publish these under our names despite our explicit refusal… it is bizarre that authors and editors are forced to associate their names with a work they no longer identify as their own”.
Last year, NCERT had said that “withdrawal of association by any one member is out of question” as the textbooks were a collective effort. NCERT director Dinesh Prasad Saklani could not be contacted for his comment. The council has once again courted controversy as its revised Class 12 political science textbook omits the mention of Babri Masjid, referring to it only as a “three-domed structure”. Other deletions include references to BJP’s ‘rath yatra’ from Somnath to Ayodhya, the role of kar sevaks and communal violence following the Babri Masjid demolition, among others.