Book of Integration Council New - Ministry of Home Affairs

Orissa where our Christian brothers have been targeted by anti-social
elements. Another serious development is the terror strikes that have rocked
several major cities of our country recently.
The report of Working Group of NIC on Commission of Enquiries on
Communal Riots, which has been placed here along with today's agenda, has
given its recommendations which relate to intelligence, police, media, general
adminstration and education. Unfortunately, the report has not touched one
important dimension of our education system. The schools run by the RSS
sister organizations are using history and social science text books to extol the
virtues of oppressive caste system, denigrate religious icons of Christians and
Muslims and underplay the role of true freedom fighters and the architects of
independent India. The divisive ideology of Savarkar, Hegdewar and Golwalkar
is being fed to the young mind. Many of these schools have been affiliated
with the State Boards and even CBSE. Unifortunately, no serious efforts are
being made to ensure that text books of these schools conform to the NCERT
standards to celebrate the rich heritage of our cultural, linguistic and religious
diversity. In a nation of the size of a continent with more than one billion
people, we can ignore this diversity at our own peril. The Central Government
had undertaken a review of such text books in 1993 and 2004. However,
the poison from these text books has not been completely wiped out. I
suggest that such text books which directly or indirectly promote divisive
ideologies and hatred among various communities should be purged from the
curriculum by the Govt.
Another serious challenge before us is to thwart the nefarious designs of
those destabilizing forecs which do not want this country to become strong
and united. We are battling an ever-growing menance of terrorism which appears
to be spreading in the society putting lives of innocent people at risk. On the
one hand, some of our youths are getting misguided into extremist and militant
ideology. On the other hand, the scourge of communal violence is rearing
its ugly head in regions which have hitherto remained largely untouched by
it. Incidents of violence and vandalism, rape and murder against Christian
minorities in Karnataka and Orissa have put the entrie nation to shame. It has
not only blotted our international image as a secular democracy but has also
dented the faith of the minorities in the system. These are, without doubt, the
most serious challenges to national integration. I, say with deep regret that the
concerned Governments have not acted with the sensitivity and seriousness that
the nation expected from them. We are only interested in blaming one another for
these incidents. I have repeatedly asked why such incident are taking place when
the country is going to face elections in the next few months. Why is it that certain
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