Chandigarh, May 11 (PTI) Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala Wednesday demanded the Haryana government withdraw a new Class 9 history book that mentions the Congress' "policy of appeasement" as one of the reasons for the country's Partition in 1947.

He alleged a distorted history of the country's freedom movement was being taught in Haryana schools, and that it has been the agenda of the BJP-RSS to falsify the entire history to purge themselves of their "ugly" past.

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The changes in the new book is another conspiracy to push the state of Haryana and the country towards hatred and divisiveness, he alleged, while demanding that the book be withdrawn without any delay.

"The Chief Minister and the Education Minister should come forward and apologise to the people of the state and promise that in future they will never dare to change history by means of fraud," he said in a statement.

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The history textbook for Class 9, which is being introduced by the Haryana Board of School Education (HBSE) from the current academic session, mentions Congress' "appeasement" policy as among one of the reasons for India's Partition in 1947.

Referring to the events before Partition, a section of the book, which has been uploaded on the board's website, says, "The Muslim League adopted policy to create obstacles in Congress' path. On the other hand, Congress wanted the support of Muslim League against British government."

It also said among other prominent reason behind the country's partition was the Congress leadership's weariness and "greed" for power.

Surjewala, who is Congress general secretary, alleged that "the political descendants of those who formed the government before independence in alliance with the Muslim League, instrumental in breaking the country, are now fiddling with the history syllabus of class IX in Haryana, and are teaching the students the distorted history of the Freedom Movement".

"This is a gross insult to the freedom struggle, and a BJP conspiracy to negate the sacrifices of millions of freedom fighters. Indian National Congress will never accept it," said Surjewala.

“It has been the agenda of BJP-RSS to falsify the entire history to purge themselves of their ugly past reality. Now, while bypassing the history of the freedom struggle and writing fabricated things in the ninth-class text book, an attempt is being made to denigrate the millions of freedom fighters including the father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi and Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak," he alleged.

Surjewala said the Khattar government which had “falsely and conspiratorially” accused the Indian National Congress of appeasing the Muslim League, should answer the people of the country and the state on the following historical facts:- “Why did the Hindu Mahasabha, the parent organisation of the BJP ideology, form the government in Sindh and Bengal in alliance with the Muslim League?

"Didn't Shri Syama Prasad Mookerjee and Hindu Mahasabha, join the Fazlul Haq ministry in Bengal, in 1941. The same, Fazlul Haq, before his fallout with the Muslim League, who had moved the 'Pakistan resolution', which committed the Muslim League to a separate Muslim nation.

"Did the Hindu Mahasabha not form a coalition government under the leadership of the Muslim League in Sindh and the North West Frontier Province? On March 3, 1943, the Sindh Legislative Assembly passed a resolution in support of a division of India on communal lines, why the members of Hindu Mahasabha were part of that Government and why they continued to remain as ministers in the same government even after that objectionable resolution?," he asked.

Referring to historical facts, Surjewala said that in 1920, Mahatma Gandhi started the non-cooperation movement.

He said the non-cooperation and Khilafat movements were launched simultaneously for forging Hindu-Muslim unity.

"In the text book with the new syllabus, instead of writing the name of the biggest movement of India's independence, "Non-Cooperation Movement", the name of "Khilafat Movement" has only been mentioned to mislead the students, which is an insult to lakhs of freedom fighters including Mahatma Gandhi,” he alleged.

"...By deliberately hiding these facts from the students in this text book, they are playing with the future of the students," he said.

Surjewala said that Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak on behalf of the Congress and Muhammad Ali Jinnah on behalf of the Muslim League participated in the agreement of 1916 reached between Congress and Muslim League.

"Mrs Annie Besant had an important role in this. This book is insulting the great freedom fighter, Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak, by calling this agreement reached at by Lokmanya for the purpose of communal harmony and Hindu-Muslim unity in the country as appeasement of Muslim League," he said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)