Calling it a "bizarre censoring of Indian history," Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar said the alleged removal of lessons on RSS founder Keshav Baliram Hedgewar from school textbooks in Karnataka would be a "crime against youth". 

BK Hari Prasad, a Congress MLC who also called Hedgewar a "coward" and "fake freedom fighter," asserted that the incoming Karnataka administration will not permit the addition of chapters on Hedgewar. The state administration has come under fire from the BJP, who has demanded an apology, claiming that Congress is making historical inaccuracies.

This decision was taken at a meeting on educational reforms here on Tuesday by CM Siddaramaiah and School Education and Literacy Minister Madhu Bangarappa.

 In addition to updating school textbooks and adopting the National Education Policy (NEP), Siddaramaiah and Madhu promised that actions will be taken to reverse the modifications made by the previous BJP administration.

After the meeting, Siddaramaiah directed the officials to form a committee to study and revise the chapters included in the textbooks by the BJP government. 

He added that Congress had already made a commitment to it in their pre-election manifesto and that the adjustments are being made for the benefit of the children's future. Madhu Bangarappa was the Vice Chairman of the manifesto committee. He stated that the change would be handled by a "purely technical team" without going into further detail.

The Congress in its poll manifesto had promised to undo the changes made to school textbooks when the BJP was in power and had also promised to scrap the National Education Policy.

Changes would be minimum to avoid inconveniencing students, the minister stressed.

To date, the Technical Committee has not made any recommendations regarding what will be dropped or carried over. The Minister will submit the Committee's recommendations to the Cabinet for debate and approval after receiving them from the Committee. Madhu Bangarappa has stated he will start the process "as soon as possible" but the complete procedure will take 10 to 15 days.

Within days after taking office in Karnataka, Congress declared that they would update school textbooks that had previously been updated by the outgoing administration. According to Congress, they will not permit materials or lectures that "poison the minds" of young people.

BJP national general secretary CT Ravi has termed the book revision move as "intolerance".

"They (Congress) had used the word intolerance, this shows that they have intolerance against a patriot. They have the right to oppose ideologically, but they don't have the moral right to question Hedgewar's patriotism. Lessons on Marx and Mao who are not from this country and were against democracy can be there in the textbook, but lessons on patriots like Hedgewar cannot be there. This is intolerance, let's see what they will do, and our party will decide what to do," he has said.

During the previous administration, there was a textbook controversy. The opposition Congress and some writers called for the dismissal of Rohith Chakratirtha, the head of the textbook review committee, for allegedly "saffronizing" school textbooks by adding the speech of RSS founder Keshav Baliram Hedgewar as a chapter and omitting chapters on important figures like freedom fighters, social reformers, and the writings of renowned literary figures.

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