The government has appointed the Thorat committee to review the NCERT’s political science textbooks for the schools. The government has said that it should remove the cartoons which make negative references to the politicians.
It was pointed out by the committee, that the textbooks carry too many caricatures of the Nehru Gandhi family and said that they have to be removed. Overall the committee recommended modifications of 35 of the 176 cartoons in the textbooks for classes 9-12.
A panel has been set up by the government headed by former UGC chairman SK Thorat in the wake of cartoon row to review the political science textbooks for schools by NCERT. The committee also reviewed the class 11 to 12 social science/political science textbooks of NCERT to identify the inappropriate material for education.
The members of the committee include, Patrica Mukhim (editor Shillong Times and social worker), A S Narang (School of Social Science IGNOU), Prof MSS Pandian, Abha Malik (teacher of social science of Sanskriti School) and Saroj Yadav (head of department of education in social science). Thorat is now the chairman of the Indian council and of social science Research. The committee was set up after an uproar was created over the cartoon of BR Ambedkar in NCERT textbooks in the month of May.
