Karnataka's government on Thursday declared that the lesson on RSS founder Keshav Baliram Hedgewar has been dropped from the textbooks.
BENGALURU — Congress-led Karnataka government on Thursday announced to amend the Anti-Conversion Law and take up textbook revision.
The announcements were made after the cabinet meeting in Vidhana Soudha. State Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister H. K. Patil said the Cabinet has decided to amend the Anti Conversion Law.
“All the aspects introduced by the previous BJP government would be dropped,” he said. The act will be taken up for amendment in the Assembly session, scheduled to be held in July,” Patil said.
The BJP has imposed stringent conditions on religious conversions. It had also prescribed stringent punishment for the offence.
The cabinet has also decided to take up textbook revision, he said.
In the Congress poll manifesto, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister D. K. Shivakumar had promised to repeal all the acts enacted by the BJP government once the party comes to power in the state.
RSS founder Hedgewar dropped from textbooks
Meanwhile, Karnataka’s government on Thursday declared that the lesson on RSS founder Keshav Baliram Hedgewar has been dropped from the textbooks.
The move is likely to trigger controversy as the BJP has stated that it won’t sit quiet if the syllabus is changed.
Education Minister Madhu Bangarappa, addressing reporters after the cabinet meeting, stated that whatever changes the BJP government had done have been reversed.
Noting that whatever is necessary in the interests of the children will be done, he said that they have made changes in Kannada textbooks from Class 6 to 10 and social science textbooks also from Class 6 to 10.
Bangarappa said that the textbooks would reach the students very fast, in less than 10 days.
Asked about which of the lessons been taken out, he said that whatever lessons were added by the previous BJP government have all been taken out. “For example, the Hedgewar lesson has been dropped,” he said.
“The BJP had repeated the same content in the syllabus. They have manipulated. The syllabus which was there before the revision by the BJP government would be retained,” he said. — IANS