As NCERT has cut down several parts of the syllabus from Class 10 and Class 12 textbooks, political scientists Yogendra Yadav and Suhas Palshikar have urged the publishing body to remove their names from the political science textbooks, expressing no urge to be associated with the syllabus.
Yogendra Yadav said that he wants his name as the chief advisor of the NCERT political science book to be removed, saying that he cannot be forced to back a book he no longer recognizes. NCERT, however, has made it clear that they will not be abiding by the request.
The National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT), however, said the withdrawal of anyone's association is out of the question as textbooks at the school level are developed on the basis of knowledge and understanding of a given subject, and at no stage, individual authorship is claimed.
Writing a letter to NCERT, both Yadav and Palshikar said that the books have now been “mutilated” beyond recognition due to the rationalization of the syllabus, rendering the books “academically dysfunctional”, urging for the removal of their names.
Yadav and Palshikar wrote in the letter, “We have not raised issues of authorship, copyrights, and NCERT's legal authority to modify these textbooks. Our point is very simple -- If they can use their legal right to distort and mutilate the text, we must be able to exercise our moral and legal right to dissociate our name from a textbook that we do not endorse.”
"How can we be forced to introduce a textbook that we no longer recognise? Surely, if the NCERT can get experts to make changes as desired, it can publish their names. The NCERT cannot hide behind our names as Chief Advisors. Please remove our names from the textbooks that were once the source of pride for us but are now a source of embarrassment," the letter said.
This comes after NCERT announced cuts in several parts of the Class 10 and Class 12 books, omitting parts of the Mughal empire, democracy, the periodic table, and evolution from the syllabus.
(With PTI inputs)
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