Yogendra Yadav and Suhas Palshikar disavow NCERT textbooks, threaten legal action

Political analysts Yogendra Yadav and Suhas Palshikar, who contributed to the development of the syllabus for classes 9 to 12 political science, have threatened to sue the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) if their names are not removed from the list of contributors to the new textbooks.

This move follows NCERT's controversial decision to omit references to significant historical events such as the demolition of the Babri Masjid, LK Advani’s Rath Yatra, and the 2002 Gujarat Riots from the class 12 Political Science textbook.

Additionally, around 26 academicians have raised concerns regarding these revised textbooks.

The chief advisors of the original textbooks sent a letter to NCERT Director Dinesh Saklani, asserting that they had requested last year for their names to be excluded from the digital and print versions of the textbooks. The letter expressed shock that NCERT had proceeded to publish and distribute the new editions without removing their names, despite their clear instructions.

The advisors criticized NCERT for not acting on their request or even acknowledging it.

Yadav and Palshikar condemned NCERT's actions, describing them as an unethical, unacademic, and illegal distortion of the textbooks. They argued that these changes infringe on the authors' intellectual property rights and the students' right to quality education. They stated that NCERT had no moral or legal authority to alter the textbooks without consulting the original advisors and then publishing them under their names, despite their explicit refusal.

The letter further accused NCERT of "hiding behind our names" to distribute Political Science textbooks that are "politically biased, academically indefensible, and pedagogically dysfunctional."