Day: 8 July 2012

In the recent period, there have been lot of debates and heated exchanges in the academic as well as political circles over the issue of a cartoon of Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar (well known for stewarding the drafting of the Indian constitution and one who radically articulated and fought for Dalith social and political rights) in the Standard XI NCERT political science textbook. The said cartoon which has been used in the textbook since 2006 and had largely remained unnoticed, until Thirumavalavan, leader of Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (a small petty bourgeois party from Tamil Nadu) and Ramdas Athavale of the Republican Party of India (Athavale) raised the issue in the parliament, demanding its immediate ban. Almost overnight, all the political parties of every hue and colour jumped on the bandwagon to not only to ban the said cartoon on Dr. Ambedkar, but a demand for removal of all cartoons in the NCERT textbooks. read more