In a letter addressed to the NCERT (National Council of Education Research and Training), the advisors of the Political Science textbooks of Class 9-12 of the NCERT have asked for their names to be removed as Advisors.

Yogendra Yadav and Suhas Palshikar have mentioned their “profound disappointment” with the “irrational” and “arbritrary” deletions made in the NCERT textbooks under the pretext of “rationalizing” content during the COVID pandemic, citing pressure on students. The duo have asked NCERT to remove their names as advisors, saying that they were not consulted before the amendments and that these cuts have left the content “mutilated” and “dysfunctional”.

In the letter addressed to NCERT Director Dinesh Saklani (made public on Twitter), Suhas and Yogendra have mentioned the lack of pedagogical rationale behind the forced modifications under the pretext of rationalization and expressed their disagreement with the amendments.

Prof @PalshikarSuhas and I have dissociated ourselves from the six NCERT textbooks that we had the honour to put together but that have now been mutilated beyond recognition. We have asked NCERT to remove our names from these books.

Our letter (attached here) says:
"we fail to… pic.twitter.com/d8cGg3tFge

— Yogendra Yadav (@_YogendraYadav) June 9, 2023

Both Suhas Palshikar and Yogendra Yadav are acclaimed political scientists. Suhas is also a well known academician while Yogendra is a leader of the Swaraj movement. They were instrumental in shaping the Political Science textbooks originally published in 2006-07 under the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) of 2005.

Yadav and Palshikar suggest that arbritrary nature of amendments do not address the internal logic of the text and allege that these cuts and deletions rather seek to serve political interests or certain groups (political parties) and individuals. Criticism erupted when the amendments were done and announced allegedly without proper notification in advance or seeking advice from the original content creators.

(Source: Media Reports, Twitter handle and PTI).