PANAJI: Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS) on Wednesday demanded that Goa Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education should withdraw the content from its textbook showing disrespect to Maratha kings Chhatrapati Shivaji and Sambhaji.
HJS convenor Manoj Solanki, in a press note released here, said that while the celebrations of birth anniversary of Hindutva Swarajya founder Shiv Chhatrapati was going on Wednesday, a very displeasing news came out that the Goa State Board's textbook of the Higher Secondary school has matter that shows contempt of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj.
“No Hindu will tolerate such distorted history of the great kings of our Motherland. Goa government should immediately withdraw this history book or else all Shivpremis will come out on the streets to protest against it, “ Solanki said.
HJS said that a supplement was added to the textbook of History for class XI under 'History of Goa' by Goa government. “The supplement narrates that Chhatrapati Shivaji attacked the Bardesh tehsil in Goa for three consecutive days, looted villages, burnt them, drowned children and women and killed some,” Solanki said.
“All these are totally false. It is a great offense to chuckle at the character of Chhatrapati Shivarai, who behaved according to the pretext of 'Par Stri Mata' (Woman is like mother) and had sent even enemy's women back to them honorably,” he said. Solanki, urged that a serious action should be taken against the author of the text as well as the authorities involved in including it in the textbook curriculum.
The HJS has pointed out that this is not the first time that such a thing is happening. In 2008, NCERT textbook had texts insulting Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.“The Goa government had to withdraw the book due to intense protest campaigns against it. If the government doesn't revoke the supplement of this book, the protest will be repeated,” he said.
When contacted, Goa Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education chairman Ramakrishna Samant said that he is yet to receive any memorandum from HJS.“What I have heard is that the HJS has submitted memorandum to Director of Education. I will have to go through the content of the memorandum,” he said.
Samant said that “if there is anything objectionable in the book, it could be deleted.” “But I can comment on it only after going through their (HJS) contention,” he said.