The ongoing monsoon session of the Parliament in Lok Sabha witnessed a heated debate between the Opposition parties and ruling dispensation over the recent changes made to the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) syllabus.
The discussion took place during the debate on the demand for grants for the education ministry in Lok Sabha which was later passed through voice vote without any changes.
The All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) MP Asaduddin Owaisi questioned the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led central government for fudging with the existing textbooks.
“Direct connection can be drawn between policies of the government and the continued education backwardness of the Muslims. In both higher education and schooling, Muslims want to get formal education but because of government apathy and negligence, the Muslim dropout of education system is sooner than children of any other community”, Owaisi said.
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Congress MP and Whip in the House Mohammad Jawed also reiterated that Mughals’ historical presence cannot be erased merely by removing their names from textbooks.
“Mughals were here for 330 years, they are not going to be removed just because you remove the name,” Jawed said.
“If there were no Muslims in this country, the BJP could not have opened its account”, he added.
He continued his verbal tirade asking BJP to not discriminate and criticised the government over the recent cases of paper leaks.
“Outside Parliament, test papers are getting leaked and inside Parliament, the roof is leaking…”, he said.
Not only the textbook revision issue, but the Opposition also tried to corner the government on the National Education Policy 2020 (NEP) too.
Reacting to the opposition party MPs’ comments, Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan defended the NEP, saying that it is based on principles of accountability, affordability, accessibility, equitability, and quality.
He highlighted the expansion in spending on higher education by 63% and primary education by 40% since 2013-14.
Pradhan also noted that the new education pattern includes a 5+3+3+4 system and said that there has been an increase in female teachers from 36 lakh to 48 lakh.
Addressing the controversy over the NCERT syllabus, Pradhan said, “Western influence in the Indian education system has to be removed?”, he said.
“The National Education Policy is not just a 60-page policy document. It is a philosophical element for the rebuilding of India, enhancing brotherhood in the world, and solving global problems. The entire nation unanimously accepts it today”, Pradhan said.
Echoing similar sentiments, BJP MP Sambit Patra accused opposition parties of hypocrisy regarding reservations and claimed that quotas for Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) were removed from Jamia Millia Islamia and Aligarh Muslim University during Congress rule.
“The Congress will have to answer (for this),” Patra said.
He highlighted an increase in the budget allocation for education to ₹1.48 lakh crore, emphasising the government’s commitment to becoming a global solution provider through skills and innovation.
Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Pratima Mondal also questioned the government for omitting chapters on significant Muslim rulers.
“The systematic revision of textbooks under the current government poses a threat to our children’s intellectual integrity,” Mondal said.
She also referenced the 2018 removal of Darwin’s theory of evolution from the curriculum, noting that it had been entirely excluded from textbooks by 2022-23.
“Deleting chapters on Muslim rules, Gujarat riots, have been widely criticised by academicians… these changes are leading to intellectual stagnation, political manipulation, and are targeting the intellect of Indian students”, she added.
BJP MP Tejasvi Surya, on the other hand, praised the government’s initiatives, arguing that the NEP addresses significant challenges and that education in mother tongue will benefit many.
He criticised the Congress for failing to implement the Mandal Commission report for ten years and claimed, “If there is any party which is anti-SC, ST, OBC, it is the Congress.”
