Karnataka education minister justifies inclusion of RSS founder's speech in Class 10 book

BENGALURU: Karnataka Primary and Secondary Education Minister B C Nagesh has defended the inclusion of a speech by founder of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Keshav Baliram Hedgewar in a revised Kannada textbook for students of class 10. This was objected to by some organisations, including All-India Democratic Students Organisation (AIDSO) and All-India Save Education Committee (AISEC).

Nagesh said the textbook does not contain anything about Hedgewar or RSS, but only his speech on what should be an inspiration to people, especially the youth, and that those who have raised objections have not gone through the textbook. "Some people want to object to everything and they feel what they have said is only the truth and only their thinking has to be told to society...In that speech, Hedgewar had said that one has to take ideology, values and principles as his or her inspiration. He has spoken about importance of society and the nation. What's wrong with that?" the Minister said.

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The organisations alleged omission of a lesson on freedom fighter Bhagat Singh. Also omitted are works by renaissance literary figures like A N Murthi Rao’s ‘Vyaghrageethe’, P Lankesh's ‘Mruga Mattu Sundari,’ and Sara Aboobacker’s ‘Yuddha,’ they said. The BJP government in the State is trying to force the ideology of RSS and the party into the textbooks, AISEC alleged in a statement.

AIDSO Karnataka condemned the Karnataka government's move of omitting a lesson on Bhagat Singh from a Kannada text book of Class 10 and demanded to immediately add the removed texts. The organisation asked “to stop inducing unscientific, undemocratic and unsecular thoughts onto textbooks.” According to a statement from AIDSO, in Kannada textbook which is newly being published by the Karnataka state government, a lesson on great revolutionary who sacrificed his life at the age of 23, Bhagat Singh, has been omitted; while speech made by a man who turned his back on the freedom movement, RSS founder, K B Hedgewar, which does not unite the people but spreads communal hatred, is being inducted.

(with inputs from PTI)