Why does Yogendra Yadav want his name dropped from NCERT textbooks?

Expressing their disagreement over the recent changes in the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) textbooks, psephologist Yogendra Yadav and political scientist Suhas Palshikar asked the council to drop their names as chief advisors from political science textbooks.

"Both of us would like to disassociate ourselves from these textbooks and request the NCERT to drop our names... We request you to give effect to this request immediately and ensure that our names are not used in the soft copies of the textbooks available at the NCERT websites and also in the subsequent print editions," the academics said in a letter to the NCERT.

The recent rationalisation exercise conducted by the NCERT is at the heart of the controversy. The council has introduced several changes to books including in subjects like Political Science and History.

Changes made to the class 12 history textbook include certain portions on Mahatma Gandhi and how his pursuit of Hindu-Muslim unity "provoked Hindu extremists", and a ban on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

Other than this, portions from the class 11 sociology textbook that talked about the 2002 Gujarat riots were also removed.

Why Yogendra Yadav wants his name removed from NCERT books?

Yadav, a political scientist, and Swaraj India leader, and Palshikar, an academician and political scientist, were chief advisors for the political science books for Classes 9 to 12, originally published in 2006-07 based on the 2005 version of the National Curriculum Framework (NCF).

Their names appear in a "letter to students" and in the list of textbook development team members at the beginning of each book.

In a joint letter, Yadav and Palshikar asserted that the presence of their names as chief advisors represents their endorsement of the changes made. However, they are against the changes and called them "arbitrary and irrational".

They said that since they were not consulted before the changes were introduced, it is not right for NCERT textbooks to carry their names.

They added that the recent rationalisation exercises have "mutilated" the books beyond recognition and asserted that the changes have made them "academically dysfunctional".

How did NCERT respond?

In its response, NCERT said that there is no question of withdrawal of anyone's association since the school-level textbooks were developed on the basis of knowledge and understanding that these experts have. It added that at no stage, the book claims any type of individual authorship.

NCERT said that Textbook Development Committees (TDCs) that were constituted during 2005-08 to help in the development of textbooks in various subjects for all classes have ended since the date of their first publication.

"However, NCERT acknowledges their academic contribution and only because of this, for the sake of the record, publishes names of all Textbook Development Committee (TDC) members in each of its textbooks," NCERT said.