NEW DELHI: A political row broke out on Saturday over a new special module by the National Council of Education Research and Training (NCERT), which holds the Congress leadership, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, and Viceroy Lord Mountbatten responsible for Partition of India. The module, released by NCERT to mark ‘Partition Horrors Remembrance Day’, drew the ire of the Congress, which demanded that the module be set on fire as it presents a distorted history.Speaking to reporters on Saturday, Congress leader Pawan Khera said, “Is 1938 mentioned or not in the NCERT module? In 1938, the Hindu Mahasabha’s national conference in Gujarat announced that Hindus and Muslims could not live in one country. Is 1940 mentioned in the module?” he asked. In 1940, Jinnah adopted the Hindu Mahasabha’s idea at the Muslim League’s Lahore session. “It was mooted in 1938 by the Hindu Mahasabha, and Jinnah repeated it in 1940,” he said.“Burn the document if all this is not mentioned in it. Partition happened due to the nexus between Hindu Mahasabha and Muslim League. Generations will not forgive them,” he said, adding that Mahasabha-Muslim League coalition governments in Bengal, Sindh and North West Frontier Province (NWFP) after 1942, led to Partition. Responding to the Congress’ allegations, BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia said Rahul Gandhi’s ‘appeasement politics’ mirrors Jinnah’s divisive ideology. “NCERT has brought the truth of Partition to textbooks. The Rahul-Jinnah party is rattled because their role is exposed,” Bhatia said.NCERT published two separate modules — one for Classes 6 to 8 and another for Classes 9 to 12. These are supplementary resources in English and Hindi, not part of regular textbooks, and are meant to be used through projects, posters, discussions and debates. The module quotes Jinnah as saying he never thought Partition would happen. “Later, even Jinnah admitted that he had not expected Partition to happen. He told his aide, ‘I never thought it would happen. I never expected to see Pakistan in my lifetime’,” it said.
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