FIVE years after the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry then led by Arjun Singh got the UNESCO to withdraw an award it planned to confer on former NCERT director Prof J S Rajput, things have come a full circle for the latter. The ministry has dropped all enquiries and charges against him and NDA nominee Prof Rajput was on August 18 conferred the prestigious Jan Amos Comenius Medal for "outstanding achievements in the fields of educational research and innovation" at a quiet ceremony hosted by UNESCO.

Rajput is the second Indian to bag the award. Its first Indian recipient was Dr Chitra Nayar, former Planning Commission member.

The former NCERT director was embroiled in controversy for "re-writing" history textbooks and bringing in religious bias into the curriculum. Arjun Singh's 'desaffronisation' drive began with the ouster of Rajput and a series of enquiries against him. Amidst the controversies, UNESCO announced this honour for Rajput in 2004 soon after his retirement, but the ministry stepped in at once asking the UN body to put the award on hold citing the enquiries against him.

UNESCO was informed that it "may not been in order" to confer the award on him at this point in time. Rajput was to originally receive the award in September 2004 in Geneva. The HRD Ministry later even withdrew Rajput's nomination for the award in 2005.

The issue raised political temperatures then, with former HRD minister Murli Manohar Joshi writing to the prime minister on the issue and George Fernandes also coming to Rajput's defence.

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