Yadunath Deshpande, senior advisor in the education ministry, has a long-standing organizational association with the ABVP. According to organization records, Deshpande has been the joint state organizing secretary of ABVP in Maharashtra.
The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has reconstituted the team preparing political science textbooks for classes 11 and 12. NCERT has taken this step with the aim of including cultural roots, Indian knowledge systems and inclusivity in the textbook. At least four members of the new team have direct or indirect links with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). This team has been asked to prepare the textbook for class 11th by November and the textbook for class 12th by July next year.
Sandeep Shastri will lead the team
The team preparing the textbook will be led by renowned educationist and political analyst Sandeep Shastri, who is the vice-chancellor of Nitte, a Karnataka-based deemed university. The team includes at least four academicians and scholars (Yadunath Deshpande, Prashant Diwekar, Vandana Mishra and Ravi Rameshchandra Shukla) who are directly or indirectly associated with the RSS-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Yadunath Deshpande’s long relationship with ABVP
Yadunath Deshpande, senior advisor in the education ministry, has a long-standing organizational association with the ABVP. According to organization records, Deshpande has been the joint state organizing secretary of ABVP in Maharashtra. He has also worked as the Organization Secretary in the Mumbai-Konkan unit of ABVP. Deshpande’s LinkedIn profile describes him as a political advisor to the BJP. At the same time, Prashant Diwekar has been associated with Pune-based ‘Gyan Prabodhini’ for a long time. ‘Gyan Prabodhini’ is an organization affiliated with the RSS, which was founded in 1962 by the organization’s pracharak Vinayak Vishwanath.
Vandana Mishra has been the national secretary of ABVP.
In the profile available on the National Guidance Mission portal of the National Council of Teacher Education (NCTE), Diwekar has described his approach as based on Indian education philosophy. He has also given information about contributing to the National Curriculum Framework. Apart from these, Vandana Mishra is a professor at the ‘Centre for Political Studies’ of Jawaharlal Nehru (JNU). She has been the National Secretary of ABVP. Ravi Rameshchandra Shukla is Associate Professor at the ‘Centre for Comparative Politics and Political Theory’, JNU. He has been a member of the editorial board of ‘Indian Journal of Democratic Governance’.
This magazine is published by ‘Indian Institute of Democratic Leadership-Rambhau Mhalgi Prabodhini’, an educational institute associated with the RSS. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis was made the chairman of this institute in 2021. Shukla has also conducted research focusing on cultural and spiritual nationalism. He is the Principal Investigator of a JNU project funded by ICSSR titled ‘The Role of Festivals in Shaping India’s Spiritual and Cultural Nationalism: A Study of Kumbh and Magh Mela’.
Who are the other people in the team?
The new team preparing the political science textbook for classes 11 and 12 includes Prakash Kandpal of JNU, Needhi Gupta of National Law University, Chetan Singhai of Chanakya University, Sukanshika Vats of Delhi University, Satish Kumar of IGNOU, Divanshu Srivastava of National University of Legal Studies and Research, Pranav Gupta of Jindal Global Law School, Nand Kishore of Pondicherry University and Swapna Prabhu of Utkal University.
Savita Sagar of NCERT, MN Suresh Kumar of Government First Division College, Bengaluru, Diana Isabel of Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation and N Bharani of SHVNM Government Girls Pre-University College are also part of the new team. Team members Vanthangpui Khobung and Subhash Singh of NCERT will be the coordinator and co-coordinator. According to the notification issued by NCERT Director Dinesh Prasad Saklani, this team will take guidance from curriculum groups related to social sciences, languages, Indian knowledge systems, environmental education, innovation-based teaching methodology and teaching-learning materials.
