A total of seven authors revoked permission to use their writings in the newly revised textbooks on Tuesday, taking the total number of writers to revoke permission to 10.
Writer Mudnakudu Chinnaswamy wrote a letter to Minister for Primary and Secondary Education B.C. Nagesh in which he has raised concerns about the saffronisation of textbooks and misleading information about Basavanna and the defamatory statements by textbook review committee chairperson Rohith Chakrathirtha on Kuvempu.
Veerappa M. Kambali, poet Roopa Hasan, Chandrashekhara Talya, Saraju Katkar, and Madhu have also withdrawn permission to use their texts. Ms. Hasan, in her letter to the Minister, said the newly revised textbooks were against the principles of the National Curriculum Framework-2005 and the Constitution.
Two-time Sahitya Akademi Award winner Bolwar Mahammad Kunhi has also written a letter to Mr. Nagesh and put the same on Facebook, to withdraw his story Sullu Helabaradu (should not lie) from the Class V textbook.
On a sarcastic note, Mr. Kunhi said the values of his story may not match with those of the other lessons in the newly revised textbook and this would confuse children and asked the government to include a text in line with the values of other lessons in the textbook.
Earlier, senior writers Devanur Mahadeva, G. Ramakrishna, and S.G. Siddaramaiah had revoked permission to use their writings to protest against the way the textbooks had been revised.
However, Mr. Nagesh has recently said it was too late for withdrawing permission to use any texts as the new textbooks were already being printed.
