AISA strongly condemns the recent reconstitution of the NCERT Textbook Development Team for Class 11 and 12 Political Science. Under the deceptive guise of incorporating “cultural rootedness” and “Indian knowledge systems,” the BJP-led Union Government has launched yet another brazen assault on our secular and democratic education system.
It is abundantly clear that this 16-member committee is a backdoor entry for BJP-RSS propaganda. By packing the panel with individuals possessing direct and documented links to the RSS, BJP, and ABVP, the government is ensuring that the political science curriculum is reduced to a mouthpiece for their ideology of hate and pro corporate stance. The appointments expose the regime’s sinister agenda with at least 4 known members affiliated with the sangh directly. The inclusion of Yadunath Deshpande, a former ABVP organising secretary and BJP political consultant which is displayed on his Linkedin profile proves that academic merit has been sidelined for ideological obedience. Prof. Vandana Mishra, a former national secretary of the ABVP, teaching at Centre for Political Studies has recently been named in the recruitment scam in JNU, and has been recruited for the same. Furthermore, the appointment of Prashant Divekar & Ravi Rameshchandra Shukla, members associated with RSS-affiliated institutions like Jnana Prabodhini and Rambhau Mhalgi Prabodhini demonstrates a systematic handover of our national curriculum to right-wing political operatives whose areas of research is based on Kumbha and Magh Mela.
Political Science classrooms are meant to foster critical thinking, democratic values, and an understanding of our constitutional framework. They must not be turned into shakhas for the RSS, which derives its own political ideology from Mussolini’s fascist regime and Hitler’s Nazism. Last year, the NCERT books for history had removed the Mughal and Sultanate period, erasing and omitting entire eras of Indian history in the name of promotion of education rooted in “Indian ethos and its civilizational accomplishments”. This panel will inevitably distort history, erase marginalized perspectives, and force-feed an exclusionary, sectarian narrative to young students as seen from the instances of the past.
AISA demands the immediate dissolution of this RSS-backed committee. We call upon the student community, educators, and all democratic voices to unite and resist this systematic saffronization of education. We will not let the RSS dictate what the youth of this country reads and thinks! Defend Secular Education,Reject RSS-Dictated NCERT Textbooks,AISA
