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Angry over derogatory Ambedkar cartoon Dalits
want textbook withdrawn
Tuesday April 03, 2012 10:19:27 AM,
IANS
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Mumbai:
Dalits across Maharashtra will launch an agitation to protest the
"derogatory" depiction of B.R. Ambedkar in a textbook, Republican
Party of India leader Ramdas Athawale said Monday, demanding
withdrawal of the book.
Addressing a media gathering here, Athawale, whose party is a
constituent of the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party led combine,
also demanded union Human Resource Development Minister Kapil
Sibal's resignation under whose aegis "this textbook has been
prepared and cleared for Class 11 political science student".
The textbook has been published by National Council of Education
Research & Training (NCERT), under the human resources development
ministry.
Atahwale demanded that NCERT must withdraw the textbook, depicting
Ambedkar - among the framers of the Indian Constitution - in a
"highly derogatory manner through a cartoon".
The objectionable cartoon, credited to Shankar's Children's Book
Trust appears in chapter I, titled "Indian Constitution at Work"
in the political science subject in the Central Board of Secondary
Education (CBSE) curriculum.
Discussing the making of the Indian Constitution
post-Independence, the chapter carried a small box item, which
according to Athawale, "lampoons B.R. Ambedkar astride a snail
with reins in hand and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru standing behind
brandishing a whip".
Athawale said that his party has already written to Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh and Sibal, taking umbrage at the "disparaging
figure" in the NCERT textbook.
"However, so far we have not received any reply from them. Even
the content describing the making of constitution is also quite
biased. It tries to project B.R. Ambedkar as a mere critic and
that the drafts were prepared by several committees formed at the
time," Athawale alleged.
"We have never claimed that the entire Constitution was written by
Ambedkar, but the fact remains that the final draft was not only
cleared by him but also envisaged by him."
"Even leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru and other political
stalwarts" of the time admired Ambedkar's legal acumen and insight
into world constitutions," Athawale said.
The RPI chief said that the Dalits wanted an immediate withdrawal
of the textbook and also rectification of the objectionable
chapter in it.
"Sibal, a lawyer who claims to be a constitutional expert must
resign. It is strange that such drawings should be put up in front
of the innocent minds of the students. It is not an imagined
insult, anybody who sees it will find shocking," Athawale
asserted.
If the demands were not met, he warned that Dalits across the
state would agitate on the streets to voice their protests.
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