NCERT drops content on Gujarat riots from Class 12 textbook

The NCERT has dropped content on Gujarat riots from the Class 12 Political Science curriculum as part of a "textbook rationalisation" exercise in view of the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to a note on the rationalised content released by the NCERT on Thursday, pages 187-189 on Gujarat riots are among the removals from the book.

It also contains a blurb carrying then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's statement that his "one message to the Chief Minister (of Gujarat) is that he should follow 'raj dharma'.

Page 105 of the book on the history of the "Naxalite movement", and pages 113-117 on "Controversies regarding Emergency" have also been dropped.

The NCERT, in its note, said the removals as part of the rationalisation include "overlapping with similar content included in other subject areas in the same class" and "content, which is irrelevant in the present context".