"It Shows India In A Negative Light", NCERT On Removing Cartoon From Class 12th Textbook

The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) removed a cartoon in the Class 12 Political Science textbook stating that ‘it shows India in a negative light’. The recent change is reportedly one more addition to the series of changes in the textbooks by the NCERT to rationalize the syllabus.

The cartoon depicting the political leaders from 1990 onwards till 2000, posing questions on the survival of their respective governments was featured in Chapter 8 of the class 12 Political Science book – ‘Recent Development in Indian Politics’. The old cartoon has been replaced with a new cartoon featuring two students conversing about the coalition government and majority governments.

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The earlier cartoon was created by Ravishankar and was originally published in India Today magazine. It displayed V.P. Singh (1990), Chandra Shekhar (1990), P.V. Narasimha Rao (1991), H.D. Deve Gowda (1996), I.K Gujaral (1997) and A.B. Vajpayee (1998) along with questions on the survival of coalition governments and Democracy. The cartoon showed a long phase of coalition governments in India including the National Front led by Singh in 1989, the United Front in 1996-97, the BJP-led coalition in 1998, and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in 1999.

The converstation in the original cartoon include, one student asking “That is my question – will democracy survive?” and another student asked, “Or may be the real question is – will democracy offer meaningful political choices?”

The NCERT available on the website show the changes new cartoon depicting the changes dates back to April prior ot 2024 election and formation of the NDA coalition government led by PM Modi.

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The new illustration shows two students conversing with each other in speech bubbles where one student questions, “Does that mean that we will always have coalitions? Or can the national parties consolidate their positions again?”, to which the other student answers, “I am not worried about whether it is a single party or a coalition government. I am more worried about what they do. Does a coalition government involve more compromises? Can we not have bold and imaginative policies in a coalition?”