Panaji, July 25 : A photograph of former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru has been dropped and replaced by freedom fighter Vinayak Savarkar in Class 10 Social Science books, the NSUI Goa chief said here on Wednesday.
"It is very sad that the BJP has removed the photo of Pandit Nehru from the text book and Savarkar's photo has been included in the books of the Goa Education Authority," Ahraz Mulla said.
"Tomorrow, they will remove the photo of Mahatma Gandhi and question what Congress has done in 60 years," the Congress' student wing leader said.
"They have to ensure they do not change history, which our ancestors have given us and the fight which the Congress has carried out for Independence," the National Students' Union of India's Goa head said at a press conference.
The book titled "India and the Contemporary World II - Democratic Politics", is a history and political science text book and is part of the syllabus of students studying in Class 10 in Goa.
In the last edition of the book, which was a part of the curriculum in the last educational year, page 68 contained a photograph of Nehru, along with Mahatma Gandhi and Maulana Azad at Sevagram ashram at Vardha, Maharashtra in 1935.
Ahraz Mulla claims that the photo has been removed and the current edition of the same book includes a coloured photo of Savarkar instead of Nehru on the same page.
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Wayanad/Thrissur(Kerala) (PTI): During the first hour of voting, Wayanad Lok Sabha and the Chelakkara assembly seats in Kerala witnessed a turnout of 6.96 and 7.2 per cent, respectively on Wednesday.
People started arriving early in the morning at the 1,354 polling booths in the hill constituency of Wayanad where there are over 14 lakh registered voters, according to the Election Commission figures.
Some arrived early, while others wanted to get it over with quickly before more people started reaching the polling stations, they told reporters.
It is a holiday in Wayanad LS and Chelakkara assembly constituencies on account of the bypolls.
The Wayanad constituency comprises seven assembly segments of Mananthavady (ST), Sulthan Bathery (ST), and Kalpetta in Wayanad district; Thiruvambady in Kozhikode district; and Eranad, Nilambur, and Wandoor in Malappuram district.
A bypoll was necessitated in the hill constituency after Rahul Gandhi, who won the Wayanad LS seat in the general elections held earlier this year, vacated it after he also won from the Rae Bareli constituency.
There are 16 candidates in the fray for the seat with Congress-led UDF's candidate and Rahul's sister Priyanka, who is making her electoral debut, CPI(M)-led LDF's Sathyan Mokeri and BJP-led NDA's Navya Haridas being the top contenders.
Polling in Wayanad commenced amidst tight security arrangements which included deployment of over 2,500 security personnel and live monitoring of the by-election process by an extensive webcasting system.
Voting for the Chelakkara assembly seat in Thrissur district of the state also saw people turning up early at the 177 polling stations in the constituency.
There are six candidates in the fray for the assembly seat, where a bypoll was necessitated after LDF's K Radhakrishnan -- who won from there in 2021 -- was elected to the Lok Sabha from the Alathur constituency by defeating UDF's Ramya Haridas who had won from there in 2019.
Haridas is now contesting from the Chelakkara assembly seat and is pitted against LDF's U R Pradeep and NDA's K Balakrishnan.
There were close to two lakh voters in the constituency during the 2021 assembly election in the state.
Voting began in Wayanad and Chelakkara after a mock poll was carried out by casting votes in favour of all candidates, including NOTA, whose names are there on an EVM.