On Saturday, 8th April 2023, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) demanded the withdrawal of an NCERT book for calling the Anantpur Sahib resolution a plea for a separate nation. SAD condemned the reference to the Anandpur Sahib resolution in the class XII textbook of history and demanded that the book should be withdrawn.
SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal said, “Is the NCERT run by illiterate and ill-informed people? Do NCERT ‘scholars’ not even know elementary history? The resolution, which contains Shiromani Akali Dal’s vision of Centre-state relations, was accepted as legitimate in the Rajiv-Longowal Accord endorsed by the Parliament and it was referred to Sarkaria Commission.”
According to Badal, the Class XII political science textbook ‘Politics in India since Independence’ refers to the Anandpur Sahib Resolution as a plea for a separate nation.
He further said, “The Sarkaria Commission had based its recommendations on the Anandpur Sahib Resolution and these were accepted by the government of India. Is the BJP bent on repeating the ‘Indira Gandhi model’ of politics and thus weakening national unity? The SAD condemns the NCERT move and demands that the book be withdrawn. This is just one of the blunders that are being committed by the present dispensation.”
SAD outrightly condemns NCERT references to Sri Anandpur Sahib Resolution as “a plea for a separate nation” in class XII text book 'Politics In India Since Independence'. The book must be withdrawn imm. The said resolution is part of Punjab Accord signed by PM & approved by Parl. pic.twitter.com/xbtSxjqhoz
— Sukhbir Singh Badal (@officeofssbadal) April 8, 2023
Earlier the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) strongly objected to the alleged misrepresentation of historical details related to the Sikhs in the NCERT book. SGPC chief Harjinder Singh Dhami claimed that the NCERT had given “misleading” information about the Anandpur Sahib Resolution in Chapter 8 (‘Regional Aspirations’) of the Class XII political science book ‘Politics in India since Independence’. Dhami claimed that the 1973 resolution was focused on the state’s rights and strengthening the federal structure. Harjinder Singh Dhami said, “It is not at all justified to portray Sikhs as separatists, so the NCERT should remove such highly objectionable mentions.”
The Shiromani Akali Dal’s working committee unanimously accepted a document known as the Anandpur Sahib Resolution at a conference held at Anandpur Sahib on October 16-17, 1973. It was supported in the form of a series of resolutions during the Shiromani Akali Dal’s 18th All India Akali Conference, held in Ludhiana on October 28-29, 1978. The resolution announcing its objectives, which would provide the state quasi-independence, left only the powers of Foreign Relations, Defense, Currency, and General Communications subject to the central government’s control. The Anandpur Sahib Resolution was considered a separatist manifesto by Indira Gandhi.
