Mumbai: A member of the Damdami Taksal seminary of the Sikh community, has filed a writ petition in the Bombay high court against the Maharashtra state bureau of textbooks for terming Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale a “terrorist” in the Class 9 history and political science subject textbooks of the Maharashtra State Board for Secondary and Higher Secondary Education. The petition said that the Sikh leader was ordained as a saint and by labelling him as a terrorist, the board has hurt the feelings of the community, and hence the objectionable part should be removed with immediate effect. Meanwhile, the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabhandak Committee has taken cognisance of the same and written to chief minister Devendra Fadnavis to intervene and ensure the objectionable content is removed.
The petition had come up for hearing in front of a division bench of Justices Anoop Mohta and Vibha Kankanwadi, wherein the petitioner Amritpal Singh Khalsa sought directions from the court to get the state board to remove references to Bhindranwale as a terrorist from the textbook. The petition stated that Bhindranwale was revered as a martyr for his role in the Sikh civil rights movement during the early 1980’s. The plea also stated that since there was no FIR against Sant Bhindranwale recorded with the Union home ministry and the Punjab police, nor was he involved in any criminal activity, the use of the word ‘terrorist’ in the textbook was wrong and should be removed immediately.
The court said that unless the matter was heard in detail it could not pass any ad-interim relief as sought by the petition, as the textbook was published and circulated onwards from April 27, 2017. “We are declined to pass such ad-interim orders, unless we hear both parties at length, after considering the material and contentions. We require proper and due assistance and material before passing any such order,” said the bench. Keeping in mind the urgency, the matter has been kept for hearing on July 27.
Meanwhile, SGPC chief, Prof Kirpal Singh Badungar strongly condemned the reference and called it as a highly insidious move by the Maharashtra education board. “I had appealed to Mr Devendra Fadnavis to remove the objectionable portion from the textbook immediately. A delegation of the seminary also met education minister Mr Vinod Tawde, and urged him to get the offensive part removed from the textbook,” he said.
Confirming the meeting with the Takhsal delegation, Mr Tawde said, “I have referred the objections raised by the delegation to the concerned board members, who finalise the syllabus.” He refrained from commenting further as the matter was sub judice.
