Even as Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has dismissed deletion of chapters about Sikh Gurus from the Class XII history book of the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB), the AamAadmiParty  (AAP) on Sunday  demanded a high-level probe and action against officials guilty of allegedly deleting chapters related to Sikh Gurus.

In a joint Press statement, seven AAP legislators inclduingKultar Singh Sandhwan, SaravjitKaurManuke, Pirmal Singh Khalsa, Jagdev Singh Kamalu, Jai Kishan Singh Rodi, Kulwant Singh Pandori and Amarjit Singh Sandoa said Amarinder Singh-led Congress government has deleted 23 chapters related to Sikh Gurus and important event of Sikh history from the Class XII history book of the PSEB.

Advertisement

AAP termed the move as disrespect to the Sikh Gurus and asked the government to correct its heinous mistake without any delay.

The AAP legislators sad the move of PSEB to remove the chapters related to the history of Sikh gurus and their teachings, Anglo-Sikh wars, Baba Banda Singh Bahadur, the rule of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, Sikh struggle against Mughals and Ahmad Shah Abdali and the origin and growth of Sikh Mislsetc will isolate the youth of Punjab from glorious past of Sikhism in particular and Punjab in whole.

“The government’s plea on the issue that certain chapters from the last year’s syllabus have been deleted to bring the syllabus on par with the NCERT is mere excuse and it cannot be accepted,” they said.

However the claim of government that these chapters will be taught in class XI does not carry any weight as many schools teach half of the class XII syllabus in class XI only.We demand a high-level probe and action against officials guilty of deleting chapters related to Sikh Gurus and glorious past of Sikhism. The govt. must mark a time bound inquiry in this regard.” said AAP MLAs.

In a statement, the CM had on Saturday said Punjab CM had accused opposition parties of trying to spread misinformation on a sensitive religious issue.

The fact was that the courses had merely been realigned with the NCERT syllabus to enable the students from Punjab to compete at the national level, said Amarinder, making it clear that not a single chapter, nor a word, had been deleted by the Board.

The history chapters had been now spread across Classes XI and XII, on the recommendation of an Expert Committee, of which a SGPC representative was also a member, he added.