CBSE Class 12 Term 1 Exams 2021: Sociology question about 2002 Gujarat riots an "error", says board

NEW DELHI: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has said that a question asked in today's Class 12 sociology term 1 exam regarding the 2002 Gujarat riots targeting Muslims was "inappropriate and in violation of the CBSE guidelines for external subject experts for setting question papers." CBSE acknowledges the error made and will take strict action against the responsible persons", the board further said.

A question has been asked in today's class 12 sociology Term 1 exam which is inappropriate and in violation of the CBSE guidelines for external subject experts for setting question papers.CBSE acknowledges the error made and will take strict action against the responsible persons

— CBSE HQ (@cbseindia29) December 1, 2021

The question asked in the Sociology exam was: “The unprecedented scale and spread of anti-muslim violence in Gujarat in 2002 took place under which government ?” Four options were given under this multiple-choice question. The options included Congress, BJP, Democratic and Republican. The question led to outrage among BJP-supporters, several of whom accused the CBSE of promoting hatred against the BJP which was in power during the riots and present prime minister Narendra Modi was chief minister. Many questioned the rationale behind such a question being asked.

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“The CBSE guidelines for paper setters clearly state that they have to ensure the questions should be academic-oriented only and should be class, religion-neutral and should not touch upon domains that could harm sentiments of people based on social and political choices”, wrote CBSE in its official Twitter handle.

The CBSE guidelines for paper setters clearly state that they have to ensure the questions should be academic oriented only and should be class, religion neutral and should not touch upon domains that could harm sentiments of people based on social and political choices.

— CBSE HQ (@cbseindia29) December 1, 2021

According to CBSE, “the guidelines provided for external subject experts for setting question papers have been violated during the preparation of the class 12 sociology exam question paper.”