The All India Students’ Association (AISA) has strongly condemned the reconstitution of the NCERT Textbook Development Team for Classes 11 and 12 Political Science, calling it another brazen assault by the BJP-led Union government on secular and democratic education.
AISA said the government’s invocation of cultural rootedness and Indian knowledge systems is being used as a cover to push BJP-RSS ideology into the national school curriculum. The 16-member committee, it said, includes individuals with direct links to the RSS, BJP and ABVP, exposing the government’s agenda of turning political science education into a vehicle for its ideology.
AISA pointed to at least four members of the committee with links to the Sangh network. It cited Yadunath Deshpande, identified on his LinkedIn profile as a former ABVP organising secretary and BJP political consultant, as one such appointment. AISA also raised the appointment of Prof. Vandana Mishra, a former ABVP national secretary teaching at the Centre for Political Studies, and referred to her reported naming in connection with a recruitment scam at JNU.
The appointment of Prashant Divekar and Ravi Rameshchandra Shukla, associated with RSS-linked institutions such as Jnana Prabodhini and Rambhau Mhalgi Prabodhini, further demonstrates the systematic handover of the national curriculum to right-wing political operatives, AISA said. It also questioned the academic orientation of the committee members whose research areas include Kumbh and Magh Mela.
AISA said political science classrooms must foster critical thinking, democratic values and an understanding of the Constitution and cannot be turned into extensions of RSS shakhas. It accused the RSS of deriving its political ideology from fascist and Nazi traditions and warned against allowing such an ideology to shape the education of young people.
The organisation pointed to the earlier changes in NCERT history textbooks, where sections covering the Mughal and Sultanate periods were removed or omitted in the name of promoting education rooted in Indian ethos and civilisational accomplishments. AISA warned that the new Political Science panel would similarly distort history, erase marginalised perspectives and impose an exclusionary and sectarian narrative on students.
AISA demanded the immediate dissolution of the committee and called upon students, teachers and all democratic forces to unite against the systematic saffronisation of education.
AISA said the RSS cannot be allowed to dictate what the youth of the country reads, studies and thinks.
