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NCERT removes cartoon on coalition politics, says it cast ‘India in a negative light’
The cartoon by Ravishankar, and originally published in India Today, had on display V.P. Singh (1990), Chandra Shekhar (1990), P.V. Narasimha Rao (1991), H.D. Deve Gowda (1996), I.K. Gujral (1997) and A.B. Vajpayee (1998) and a serial string of questions on the survival of their coalition governments and democracy
The removed cartoon depicted political leaders from 1990 onwards and posed questions on the survival of their respective governments featured in Chapter 8 — Recent Developments in Indian Politics, of ‘Politics in India since Independence’. Photo: ncert.nic.in
The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has removed a political cartoon from the Class 12 Political Science textbook saying that “it shows India in a negative light”.
It is one of the multiple changes introduced and made public by the NCERT in its document that chronicles the latest set of changes in rationalised textbooks.
The removed cartoon depicted political leaders from 1990 onwards and posed questions on the survival of their respective governments featured in Chapter 8 — Recent Developments in Indian Politics of Politics in India since Independence.
The cartoon by Ravishankar, and originally published in India Today magazine, had on display V.P. Singh (1990), Chandra Shekhar (1990), P.V. Narasimha Rao (1991), H.D. Deve Gowda (1996), I.K. Gujral (1997) and A.B. Vajpayee (1998) and a serial string of questions on the survival of their coalition governments and democracy.
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The cartoon supplemented the long phase of coalition politics in India, which applied to the National Front led by Singh in 1989, the United Front in 1996-97, the BJP-led coalition in 1998, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in 1999, the United Progressive Alliance in 2004 and 2009. This trend changed in 2014 when the BJP had full majority in the Lok Sabha and led an NDA government. However, a decade later, India yet again has a coalition government at the Centre post the 2024 Lok Sabha election.
The document published by NCERT depicting the changes dates back to April, prior to the 2024 election and the formation of the NDA coalition government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in which the BJP does not have a majority on its own.
Photo: ncert.nic.in
The illustration has been replaced with two students conversing with each other in speech bubbles. In the new illustration, 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 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?”
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