After SAD, AAP alleges chapters related to era of Sikh Gurus deleted from class 12 history books

After the Shiromani Aakali Dal, main opposition Aam Aadmi Party today accused the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) of removing chapters related to the era of Sikh Gurus from the class 12 history books.

The AAP, which has sought a high-level probe into the issue, claimed that 23 chapters related to Sikh Gurus and important event of Sikh history have been "deleted" from the PSEB's class 12 history book.

Terming it a disrespect to the Sikh Gurus, it asked the Congress government "to correct the mistake without any delay".

In a joint statement, seven AAP MLAs hit out at "the move of the 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".

"The government's plea on the issue that certain chapters from the last year's syllabus have been deleted to bring the curriculum on par with the NCERT is merely an excuse and it cannot be accepted," AAP MLAs Kultar Singh Sandhwan, Saravjit Kaur Manuke, Pirmal Singh Khalsa, Jagdev Singh Kamalu, Jai Kishan Singh Rodi, Kulwant Singh Pandori and Amarjit Singh Sandoa said.

"We demand a high-level probe and action against officials guilty of deleting chapters related to Sikh Gurus and the glorious past of Sikhism. The government must make a time-bound inquiry in this regard," the AAP legislators said.

Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh had yesterday dismissed SAD's allegation of deletion of chapters about Sikh Gurus from the Class XII history and termed their claims as "malicious".

Lambasting SAD leaders for trying to spread "misinformation" on a sensitive religious issue, the chief minister had yesterday said the Akalis had shown "gross irresponsibility" by making a "baseless" public statement without bothering to check on the facts.

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, Amarinder Singh had said, making it clear that not a single chapter, nor a word, had been deleted by the state board.

The history chapters has been now spread across the history books of classes 11 and 12, on the recommendation of an expert committee, of which a Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) representative was also a member, he had said.

According to the panel's recommendations, the board had earlier restructured physics and chemistry courses, and had now realigned the history books to make the course more relevant, in line with the NCERT syllabus.

Since the committee felt that the students should be exposed to Sikh history from class 11 itself, the chapters on Punjab and Sikh history had been shifted to Class 11, while India and Modern History as well as Modern Sikh History had been moved to the Class 12 syllabus, the chief minister had said.