Joshi rewrite man is out, Arjun gets his own in

A four-member team has been set up to look for Rajput’s successor. A couple of them have Leftist leanings suggesting that, if anything, the pendulum may swing the other way.

While Rajput was a marked man for ‘‘saffronising’’ school curriculum, the irony was that he had often confided in friends that he considered Singh his true mentor. He used to speak of how his career received a boost with Singh’s help in 1994.

Had Singh wanted, he could have tried to persuade Rajput to continue in his post. His five-year term ends only on July 13 and he could have been granted a year’s extension. His retirement was due only in 2005.

However, his over-zealous support for Joshi’s agenda, who appointed him the NCERT chief in 1999, obviously worked against him. His efforts to give Hindutva a boost through school textbooks made him a prime target for Leftist academics.

Even the BJP government was embarrassed last year when it was found that textbook writers commissioned by Rajput had been plagiarising and lifting whole paragraphs from works of foreign scholars. Then deputy prime minister L K Advani even called him over to North Block to question such academic malpractice.

Rajput had decided to leave on his own terms rather than face a sack. He had put in his VRS request in April, before the results were announced. He knew that a new dispensation would not let him continue in the job.

Rajput met Singh last week and conveyed to him that his request was lying with the Ministry. This spared his former mentor the burden of asking him to leave.

Textbooks could son have a new look. The panel searching for Rajput’s successor is headed by former University Grants Commission chairman, Professor Yash Pal. He was among those who had criticised the alterations introduced by Rajput in the curriculum.

The other members are Professor Emeritus P N Srivastava, a former vice-chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University, Jasodhara Bagchi, former professor of Jadavpur University’s English department and its School of Women Studies and currently Chairperson of the West Bengal Commission for Women, and Professor Mushir-ul-Hasan, historian and former vice-chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia.

Commissioner of Navodaya Vidyalayas Dilip Kotia is also returning to his parent Uttaranchal cadre. Apparently the Uttaranchal cadre wants him back, but what cannot be ignored is that Kotia had been a favourite bureaucrat of the Joshi regime. He was PS to former UP chief minister Kalyan Singh before moving over to Delhi and becoming Joshi’s personal secretary.