A cartoon of B R Ambedkar in the NCERT textbooks, created an uproar in the Parliament. The HRD Minister, Kapil Sibal apologised over the objectionable content and assured that he has directed the cartoon to be removed and has also directed the distribution of the concerned books to be stopped.
Sibal also appealed to the political parties not to make it an issue for vote bank politics. The HRD minister told the reporters, “…I am willing to personally apologise for it though I was not the minister at that time in 2006. I was involved in the publication of the books”.
The minister also said that there was no question of anyone trying to malign Ambedkar or anyone trying to make fun of him. Sibal even said that he began taking action iver the issue much before it landed in the parliament.
The minister set up a committee to look in to the entire gamut of the cartoons in the textbooks as well as their content so as to ensure that the material of this nature was taken out. Kapil even said that the government further decided that the textbooks which contain the cartoons shall not be distributed. The wholesalers have been asked to stop the distribution of the textbooks.
