BJP, Congress clash over NCERT’s Partition modules
While the Congress has demanded that the module be scrapped, the BJP has accused the grand old party of repeating its ‘appeasement politics’ and refusing to confront historical truth
New Delhi: The Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday traded barbs over NCERT’s new special module, which holds the grand old party, Muslim League leader Muhammad Ali Jinnah, and the last Viceroy of India Lord Louis Mountbatten responsible for Partition. While the Opposition party has demanded that the module be scrapped and even “burnt,” the ruling BJP has accused the Congress party of repeating its “appeasement politics” and refusing to confront historical truth.
As first reported by HT, a new special module created by the National Council of Education Research and Training (NCERT) on “Partition Horrors Remembrance Day” (August 14) holds three people responsible: “Jinnah, who demanded it; second, the Congress, which accepted it; and third, Mountbatten, who implemented it”. The modules are separate short publications on specific topics that are not part of the textbooks; one is meant for classes 6 to 8 (middle stage), and another for classes 9 to 12 (secondary stage).
While the BJP has hailed the modules as “truth in syllabus” and alleged that Rahul Gandhi and Jinnah have become “synonymous,” the Congress has accused NCERT of “distorting history” and branded the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) as “the biggest villain in Indian history.”
Reacting to a question related to NCERT’s new special module on partition, Congress party spokesperson Pawan Khera said the Hindu Mahasabha and Muslim League were chiefly responsible for India’s partition. He pointed to the 1938 Mahasabha convention declaring Hindus and Muslims could not coexist, Jinnah’s 1940 Lahore resolution, and the Mahasabha–Muslim League coalition governments in Bengal, Sindh and North West Frontier Province (NWFP) after 1942, which, he said, paved the way for partition.
{{/usCountry}}Reacting to a question related to NCERT’s new special module on partition, Congress party spokesperson Pawan Khera said the Hindu Mahasabha and Muslim League were chiefly responsible for India’s partition. He pointed to the 1938 Mahasabha convention declaring Hindus and Muslims could not coexist, Jinnah’s 1940 Lahore resolution, and the Mahasabha–Muslim League coalition governments in Bengal, Sindh and North West Frontier Province (NWFP) after 1942, which, he said, paved the way for partition.
{{/usCountry}}“Set this book on fire if it does not mention all this. The truth is that Partition happened due to collaboration between the Hindu Mahasabha and the Muslim League. If there is any biggest villain in Indian history, it is RSS. Future generations will not forgive the role it played in spying, which it continued for 25 years at that time. And in that spying, there was collaboration with Muslims and with Jinnah,” Khera said. “Advani ji went to Jinnah’s mausoleum to bow and give thanks. So, when institutions are being interfered with and history is being distorted, are we supposed to sit quietly? Can they erase the pages of history from 1938, 1940, 1942?” he added.
{{/usCountry}}“Set this book on fire if it does not mention all this. The truth is that Partition happened due to collaboration between the Hindu Mahasabha and the Muslim League. If there is any biggest villain in Indian history, it is RSS. Future generations will not forgive the role it played in spying, which it continued for 25 years at that time. And in that spying, there was collaboration with Muslims and with Jinnah,” Khera said. “Advani ji went to Jinnah’s mausoleum to bow and give thanks. So, when institutions are being interfered with and history is being distorted, are we supposed to sit quietly? Can they erase the pages of history from 1938, 1940, 1942?” he added.
{{/usCountry}}Responding to the Congress’ objections, BJP leader Gaurav Bhatia said at a press conference in Delhi that the Congress, led by Rahul Gandhi, was the first to feel the “pain” of this truth being exposed. “Jinnah and Rahul — their thinking is alike; they have become synonymous with each other. The same poisonous politics of appeasement that Jinnah practised is also reflected in the so-called Gandhi family. The Congress party also says that reservation should be based on religion, which Jinnah also said,” he said.
BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla said that it is true that Muslim League, the Congress led by Nehru, and Mountbatten were at the helm at that time. “Who could have stopped Partition? Either the Muslim League or the Congress. In fact, there are statements of Nehru himself in favour of Partition. At that time, wrong decisions were taken out of greed for power and appeasement politics — and the country is still paying the price. Lakhs were killed, crores displaced, thousands of women raped. Yet whenever we remember this tragedy, the Congress opposes it. They want to escape history when it doesn’t suit them, but otherwise they take shelter in history. The fact is, Congress is once again repeating the same historic blunder of appeasement and hunger for power. They must face the truth and apologise for dividing the nation,” he said.
Meanwhile, AIMIM MP Asaduddin Owaisi urged the government to include ‘Muslims Against Partition’ by Shamsul Islam in the NCERT curriculum. Owaisi challenged the claim that Muslims were responsible for the Partition. “This lie is told again and again about Partition. At that time, not even 2-3% Muslims had the right to vote, and today people blame us for the Partition. How were we responsible for that? Those who fled from here, they fled. Those who were loyal, they stayed..,” he said.
NCERT officials did not respond to HT’s queries.
Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) member secretary, Dr Om Jee Upadhyay in a video statement said, “..Partition was not a normal incident, but it is one of the most tragic incidents of history where 1.5 crore people were forced to cross boundaries...12-15 lakh people were brutally murdered..The new generation should know the truth so that they can learn from it and ensure that such incidents don’t happen in the future...I do not think that there is any factual mistake in the modules and nobody has pointed out any factual mistakes.”
NCERT’s special modules are supplementary resources in English and Hindi that cover contemporary and culturally significant topics. They are not part of regular textbooks and are taught through projects, posters, discussions, and debates.
The module for the middle stage states that India’s partition “was not inevitable” and happened due to “wrong ideas”. The module for the secondary stage says that Muslim leaders, citing differences in “religion, culture, customs, history, and world view,” saw themselves as fundamentally separate from Hindus , rooted in the ideology of “political Islam,” which it claims rejects any permanent equality with non-Muslims. This ideology, it states, underpinned the Pakistan movement, with Jinnah acting as its “able lawyer-leader.”
