Controversy erupts over Preamble published on Class 10 textbook cover without words 'Socialist' and 'Secular'

Hyderabad: The Telangana State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) has got mired in a controversy following the publication of the Preamble of the Constitution on the cover page of a school textbook allegedly without the words 'socialist' and 'secular'.

The SCERT, however, maintained that the error occurred due to oversight. The Telangana State United Teachers' Federation (TSUTF) submitted a representation to the secretary of education department on Thursday complaining that the words 'socialist' and 'secular' were "removed" from the Preamble published on the cover page of the class 10 social studies textbook published by the SCERT. The two words were included in the Preamble through the 42nd Constitutional amendment, the TSUTF recalled.

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However, the Preamble, including the two words, was published in the pages inside class 8 and 10 social studies books, it said. At a time when there is a debate "across the globe" that secularism was in danger in India, the publication of the old Preamble "the way some people want it" instead of the one that is in force gives rise to several doubts, the Federation claimed. It said that the error was a major one and that either it happened intentionally or due to oversight. The Federation urged that the correct Preamble be published and sought tough action against those responsible for wrongly publishing the Preamble, after conducting an inquiry.

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Meanwhile, the SCERT said the error was inadvertent. "This happened by oversight and unintentionally while downloading the image at the time of designing the cover," the SCERT Director said. However, in the inner pages of other textbooks, the Preamble after amendment was printed. "The error crept in inadvertently," the Director said.