After Demeaning Savarkar, Rajasthan Government Removes Deen Dayal Upadhyay’s Name From Scholarship

Latest in the spree of its textbook sanitising mission, Congress government in Rajasthan has decided to drop the name of Deendayal Upadhyay from state school scholarship test, reports Hindustan Times.

The competitive exam is carried out for class 10 and class 12 (for science, commerce and art streams) in the government schools of Rajasthan and the meritorious students are provided with scholarships.

Rajasthan education minister Govind Singh Dotasra on Thursday said, “The name is being dropped since there was no explanation as to why did BJP government prefix Upadhyay’s name in the first place.”

The decision triggered a fresh controversy and the BJP claimed that Congress is scared of Upadhyay. Previously, the Congress government had affixed “Son of Portugal” to freedom fighter Vinayak Damodar Savarkar's description in social science textbooks of class 10 in Rajasthan. The government also dropped the topic on demonetisation and picture related to Jauhar along with making changes in the description of battle of Haldighati.

After BJP quoted late Congress President Indira Gandhi when she called Savarkar, "byword for daring and patriotism." The former prime minister had called Savarkar "a classical revolutionary and countless people drew inspiration from him".

“The then government had issued a commemorative stamp on Veer Savarkar in 1970. Indira Gandhi had donated a sum of Rs 11,000 from her personal account to Savarkar Trust and ordered the Films Division to produce a documentary on his life,” tweeted former education minister Vasudev Devnani.

In response, Rajasthan Education Minister Govind Singh Dotasara had said that whatever was written in the textbooks was written based on the recommendations of expert committee formed by the government.