NCERT rejects Yogendra Yadav's demand to remove his name from textbooks

Yadav accused the educational research body of disregarding his request.

Yogendra Yadav, along with academician Suhas Palshikar, is listed as a chief adviser in the NCERT textbooks, but both want to disassociate themselves from what they consider to be "mutilated" textbooks.

Yogendra Yadav expressed his disappointment with the NCERT's response, which came in the form of an unsigned statement.

He underscored that the NCERT's statement did not address the specific point raised in their letter, which was the request for their names to be removed from the textbooks.

"Sad to see that NCERT has chosen to respond to professor Suhas Palshikar and my letter through an unsigned statement. Even more disappointing that it does not respond to the sole point we had made," Yadav tweeted today, referring to the NCERT's refusal to remove their names.

In its unsigned response to Yogendra Yadav's initial letter requesting the removal of his name, the NCERT said, “textbooks at the school level are developed "based on the state of our knowledge and understanding on a given subject. Therefore, at no stage individual ownership is claimed, hence the withdrawal of association by anyone is out of the question."

Palshikar and Yadav were chief advisers for Political Science textbooks for Classes 9 to 12, initially published in 2006-07 based on the 2005 version of the National Curriculum Framework.

The names of Yogendra Yadav and Suhas Palshikar are mentioned in a "letter to students" and in the list of members of the textbook development team at the beginning of each book.

The controversy surrounding the dropping of several topics and portions from NCERT textbooks last month has led to accusations from the Opposition, who claim that the BJP-led Central government is engaged in a deliberate "whitewashing" of content.

The controversy arose after some changes were made in the NCERT textbooks apart from those notified as part of the rationalisation process. It was alleged that the deletions were done secretly.

NCERT described the omissions as a possible oversight but refused to restore the deleted portions saying they were done on the recommendations of experts.