Congress today raised in the Rajya Sabha the issue of deletion of reference to party icons and leaders from history books in some BJP-ruled states and demanded that the state governments should be stopped from spreading misinformation.
Raising the issue through a Zero Hour mention, Rajeev Shukla (Cong) said history cannot be wiped out but some state governments are attempting to distort it by removing reference to leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi.
The Congress, when in power, did not change schemes named after BJP icon Deendayal Upadhyay, why then was BJP removing it, he asked.
He alleged that contributions and struggles of Congress leaders in freedom struggle and building of India are being dropped from textbooks and schemes named after them are being renamed.
Claiming that there is plan afoot to drop names of Congress leaders from cockpit announcements made on arrival at an airport named after them, he said it is being planned that announcements should strictly be about arrival at the particular city airport and not give out full name of the airport.
"You are sullying the atmosphere and misinformation is being spread," he said, demanding state governments should be stopped from tampering with history.
Anand Sharma (Cong) said removing of sacrifices of great leaders from textbooks will not be tolerated and any such attempt is condemnable.
Responding to this, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said no reference to any leader or icon is being removed but those who have been previously omitted for political reasons are being added.
His statement met with protests from the Congress party who moved into ailes, waving newspaper clippings reporting how history books in some schools have dropped reference to leaders like Nehru.
Deputy Chairman P J Kurien said if any name has been removed, the government should look into it.
Naqvi retorted back at Congress saying the name they are mentioning as being dropped continues to be part of history textbook.
As Congress members threatened to move into the well, Kurien said he will not tolerate such behaviour.
He said he agreed that it was an important issue and it is also on record that on his asking the minister (Naqvi) stated that the deletion of names will not happen.
Ali Anwar Ansari (JDU) raised the issue of 150 people
from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Telengana and Andhra Pradesh who are stuck in Saudi Arabia because the 'bin Laden' company they went to work for hasn't paid their wages for six months.
The company has demanded 200 rials to release their bond that would allow them to travel to India, he said, adding the Ministry of External Affairs should intervene and help get the labourers stuck in Saudi Arabia return back by providing them tickets and other travel documents.
Sukhendu Sekhar Roy (TMC) raised the issue of the government deciding to dilute the compulsory jute packing norm for wheat saying it will impact 40 lakh farmers and four lakh industrial labourers employed in jute industry.
"Dont fall for plastic lobby," he said seeking review of the decision.
