State Education Minister PC Sharma on Sunday held responsible "the people sitting in the government for 15 years" for the mistake in a module book prepared for class 10 students that depicted Mahatma Gandhi negatively, and said action will be taken against them.
"Pragya Thakur recently called Nathuram Godse a patriot in the Parliament. This has been done by people with same mentality who have been sitting in the government for the past 15 years," he told ANI here.
"We will take action against them," the minister added.
In the module book prepared for Class 10 students by the Madhya Pradesh Education Department, Mahatma Gandhi has been termed as 'Kubuddhi' (malevolent).
Attacking the Congress government over the mistake, BJP leader Rameshwar Sharma said that the grand old party had never believed in the Gandhian ideology.
"Congress never accepted Mahatma Gandhi's ideology. It never accepted Gandhi's Ram, Ram Rajya, Gram Rajya but it only accepted Gandhi surname so that Sonia, Rahul and Priyanka can be established (in the politics)," Sharma said.
He further said, "Congress has killed Gandhian ideologically. Gandhi's depiction as 'Kubuddhi' show how much Congress believes in Gandhian ideology."
The mistake has appeared on Page 46 of the Test Paper-3 in the question and answers section, prepared for Class X students, where Gandhi has been termed as 'Kubuddhi'. The module is being used to teach students for the past many months.
The controversial line reads: "Kubuddhi was a wicked man and led a life of drinking and gandhijis."
PC Sharma, Madhya Pradesh Minister on Class 10 study material prepared by state education board depicts Mahatma Gandhi negatively: Action will be take against the person who committed this mistake. pic.twitter.com/laQkKFD8RW
— ANI (@ANI) December 1, 2019
The state education board has prepared the module for helping the students, who are weak in some subjects, and is used in all government schools across the state.
Several teachers, however, have attributed the mistake to printing. "It happened due to a misprint. The word which should have been there is 'gambling' instead of 'Gandhiji'. It can be a printing mistake, but there is no mistake of any expert who prepared the question paper," a teacher told ANI.
"Both the words begin with the letter 'G' and therefore it could have resulted in the mistake. The lesson, which the module relates to is called 'Pot of Gold' which is a part of the moral story," she added.
Congress spokesperson Vibha Patel said that an inquiry will be conducted into the matter and all the people behind the lapse will be taken to task.
"It is indeed a very big mistake. An inquiry will be conducted against all those involved in the making of the question paper. Action will be taken against them. The Congress party has never supported this kind of mentality," said Patel.
-ANI
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