The Rajasthan government is mulling the scrapping of state secondary board of education textbooks following an education board committee’s findings that certain textbooks, being used in the present academic year, contain extreme right-wing propaganda.

The textbooks were introduced in 2006 during the previous Vasundhara Raje-led BJP regime in Rajasthan and were published by the Rajasthan Board of Secondary Education.

Minister of State for Education Mangilal Garasia, on Thursday, stated that an inquiry will soon be carried out into the entire incident. “Some objectionable material has been found in the textbooks and we are looking into it and will take the necessary action,” Garasia said. The state education ministers and senior bureaucrats held a meeting on Thursday to decide on the next course of action concerning these textbooks. The committee reportedly found that the textbooks contained a clear saffron agenda, including that of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal.

People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) Rajasthan general secretary Kavita Srivastava stated that the textbooks taught students genocide and spread communal disharmony. “Other than teaching genocide several portions of these textbooks clearly profess fascism over and above democracy,” Srivastava said.

According to senior education board officials, the government was in a bind over getting the books scrapped immediately as it is the middle of the academic year. A senior official said, “The government is mulling whether we should scrap the books entirely or only black out some of the objectionable chapters in the textbooks.” He added that another option the government had was to black out certain chapters and ensure they are not used in the final exams. Education board officials also stated that the authors of these textbooks would be blacklisted after a complete departmental enquiry.

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