Karnataka Congress protests against revised textbooks, demands CM's resignation
Bengaluru, Jun 9: The Karnataka Congress on Thursday staged a protest here urging the state government to withdraw the controversial revised school textbooks, and demanded the resignation of Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, accusing his administration of distorting history and "saffronising" education as per RSS' directions.
Amid sloganeering by calling the state government "RSS' puppet", "anti people", "anti constitution", "corrupt", the protest was held in front of Mahatma Gandhi's statue at the premises of Vidhana Soudha, the seat of the state secretariat and legislature here.
They accused the government of insulting prominent religious, social and freedom movement figures like Basavanna, B R Ambedkar, Narayana Guru, Kuvempu, Bhagat Singh among others, and alleged that it was saffronising education and introducing 'Manuwaad' into it, also distorting history and spreading hatred among students.
The protest attended by several state Congress legislators and leaders, was led by state president D K Shivakumar, Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly Siddaramaiah, Leader of the Opposition in the Council B K Hariprasad, among others.
Accusing the government of trying to distort the state's and country's culture and history by bringing in "Nagpur Education Policy" and with an "unfit person" as the head of textbook review committee, Shivakumar said, "You (the government) have made us bow down our heads in shame by insulting state and national icons."
The Congress will continue its agitation on the issue, he said, "Withdraw this revised textbook, bring back the old ones, throw the revised one into the dustbin...they (BJP) tried to revise books according to their whims and fancies. Basavaraj Bommai should resign first, Bommai and BJP government should go first."
Siddaramaiah said the textbooks have been revised as per the directions of RSS by distorting history, with an aim to saffronise education, and it has to be withdrawn.
Pointing out that the government under pressure from literary figures and intellectuals had disbanded the textbook review committee, he said the textbooks revised by the disbanded committee has to also be withdrawn and should not be taught to students as history has been distorted in it.
The state government had last week "disbanded" the textbook review committee headed by Rohith Chakratirtha, stating its designated work was completed, and had said that the government is open for further revision if there are any objectionable contents.
Amid raging controversy over the textbook issue, state Primary and Secondary Education Minister B C Nagesh on Tuesday had said the government has decided to place before the people the contents of the original textbooks and those revised by the erstwhile Congress and the present BJP regimes.
The controversy had erupted with some organisations raising objections over the alleged replacing of a chapter on Bhagat Singh with an essay on a speech by RSS founder Keshav Baliram Hedgewar in the revised Kannada textbook for Class 10.
Subsequently, there were allegations about the omission of a chapter on Narayana Guru and several other prominent figures, national and state icons and their literary works.
There are also allegations of erroneous content on 12th century social reformer Basavanna and certain factual errors in the textbooks, including accusations of disrespecting 'Raashtra Kavi' (national poet) Kuvempu and distortion of the state anthem penned by him.
ಕೆಪಿಸಿಸಿ ಅಧ್ಯಕ್ಷ @DKShivakumar, ವಿಧಾನ ಪರಿಷತ್ ವಿರೋಧ ಪಕ್ಷದ ನಾಯಕ @HariprasadBK2 ಸೇರಿದಂತೆ ಕಾಂಗ್ರೆಸ್ ಪಕ್ಷದ ಹಿರಿಯ ಮುಖಂಡರು, ಹಾಲಿ, ಮಾಜಿ ಶಾಸಕರು, ಪದಾಧಿಕಾರಿಗಳು ಸೇರಿದಂತೆ ಹಲವರು ಭಾಗವಹಿಸಿದ್ದರು.
— Siddaramaiah (@siddaramaiah) June 9, 2022
2/2 pic.twitter.com/vqqjlX5Qmy
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
HC to decide if gram panchayat members can continue in Manipur post tenure: SC
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Thursday said the high court would decide whether the elected gram panchayat members, whose five-year tenure was over in Manipur, were entitled to continue in their posts in the event of the appointment of an administrative committee or an administrator.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh said it would like to have the benefit of the view of the high court in the matter and set a three-month time frame to adjudicate the legal question.
"The question that falls for consideration in this case is that whether the elected member of the Gram Panchayat whose five-year tenure is over was entitled to continue as members of the gram panchayat in the event of appointment of administrative committee or administrator, as contemplated under Section 22 of the Manipur Panchayati Raj Act of 1994," the bench noted.
The Manipur government’s counsel said the state could not hold panchayat elections due to the unprecedented violence.
"Since, we would like to have the advantage of the opinion of the high court, we dispose of the special leave petition without expressing any opinion on merits, with the request to the chief justice of Manipur High Court to post the main case before a division bench at the earliest. We further request the division bench, before whom the matter is listed, to provide expeditious hearing with an endeavour to resolve the controversy within three months," the bench said.
The bench noted that provision of Manipur Panchayati Raj Act was amended to substitute the word "cease" with the word "continue" with respect to the tenure of the elected members of the gram panchayat.
The petitioners have challenged a high court order and submitted that since elections in gram panchayat could not be held in Manipur for various reasons, the previously elected members of the panchayat were entitled to continue as per the amended Section 22 (3) of 1994 Act.
Section 22 deals with the power of deputy commissioner to appoint an administrative committee or an administrator for a period of six months, which will then oversee the election.
Section 22 (3) of the law says once the administrative committee or an administrator is appointed by the deputy commissioner, the elected members of earlier gram panchayat shall cease to exist.
The top court said what has been challenged before it was an interlocutory order of the high court and the main petition in which the question of law that had been raised was still pending.
The original petitioners before the high court were elected representatives at the fifth general elections for gram panchayats and the zilla parishads who sought a direction to continue in the office beyond the period of five years as stipulated by law as elections were last held in 2017.
They sought to continue as panchayat members till the time the state election commission notified the election for the sixth general elections for gram panchayats and zilla parishads.
On February 29, last year, the high court in its interim order gave liberty to Manipur government to appoint an administrative committee for each gram panchayat and zilla parishad in accordance with law and the provision of the Act.
