’Babri Masjid demolition, a criminal act...’: Owaisi flays NCERT over tweaks glorifying Ayodhya judgement

Children should not grow up "glorifying criminal acts", AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi said on Tuesday as he flayed the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) over its tweaks in textbooks in reference to Babri Masjid demolition.

The Hyderabad MP, in a post on X (formerly Twitter) said the children of India should know that the Supreme Court had called the demolition of Babri Masjid an "egregious criminal act".

Also read: NCERT says teaching about Gujarat riots, Babri masjid demolition ‘can create violent, depressed citizens’

"The NCERT has decided to replace Babri Masjid with the words ‘three domed structure.’ It has also decided to call the Ayodhya judgement an example of 'consensus.' India’s children should know that the Supreme Court called the demolition of Babri Masjid an egregious criminal act," Owaisi said.

He also added that the children should know that a functioning masjid was "desecrated" in 1949 and then demolished by a mob in 1992. "They should not grow up glorifying criminal acts."

Also read: NCERT omits some references to ‘Gujarat riots, Babri Masjid’ from Class 12 syllabus. Here are top 5 changes

However, the NCERT director Dinesh Prasad Saklani had called the tweaks a “part of the annual revision” and had said that these “should not be a subject of hue and cry”.

The NCERT has also modified textbooks in references to Gujarat riots “to avoid creating violent and depressed citizens”.

The latest deletions in the textbooks include BJP's 'rath yatra' from Somnath in Gujarat to Ayodhya; the role of kar sevaks; communal violence in the wake of the demolition of the Babri masjid; President's rule in BJP-ruled states; and the BJP's expression of "regret over the happenings at Ayodhya".

Also read: Jamia Millia Islamia students raise ‘Strike for Babri’ slogans on campus, university says ‘no action’

The revised Class 12 political science textbook terms Babri Masjid as a "three-domed structure" and prunes the Ayodhya section to two pages from the earlier 4 as it deletes details.  

The NCERT has instead focused on the Supreme Court's judgement that paved the way for the construction of a Ram temple at the site where the mosque once stood before it was torn down by Hindu activists on 6 December 1992.

Following Supreme Court's verdict, the consecration of the Ram idol in the Ayodhya temple was performed on 22 January 2024 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.