Congress moves privilege motion against Dharmendra Pradhan over ’misleading’ NCERT preamble removal claim

Congress Rajya Sabha member Jairam Ramesh on Friday moved a privilege motion against the Union Minister of Education Dharmendra Pradhan, alleging that his statement about the omission of the Preamble of the Constitution from NCERT textbooks was “misleading.”

Jairam Ramesh also presented the older editions of Class 3 NCERT textbooks, which he said have preamble printed at the end and the beginning. He claimed that the new editions of the Class 3 textbooks, presented in Rajya Sabha, had no preamble printed.

“The assertion made by Shri Dharmendra Pradhan is factually incorrect and misleading. In support of my contention, I enclose herewith copies of textbook for Class 3 titled ‘Looking Around’ (Environmental Studies), November 2022 edition, textbook in Hindi, titled ‘Rimjhim’ November 2022 edition and Class 6 titled ‘Honeysuckle’, December 2022 edition. In both these textbooks, the Constitution has been incorporated as was done in the earlier editions of the textbook,” RS member Jairam Ramesh said in a notice of question of privilege against Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

“On the other hand, the textbook for Class 3 titled ‘Our Wondorous World’, June 2024 edition, a textbook in Hindi titled ‘Veena’, June 2024 edition, the Preamble to the Constitution has been omitted," read the notice.

Congress leaders have been raising the issue of removing the preamble from NCERT textbooks in parliament for the past few days. Dharmendra Pradhan has rejected the claim several times and accused the grand old party of “spreading lies and misinformation.”

While rejecting Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge's charge against the government over the removal of the Preamble to the Constitution from NCERT books, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Wednesday asserted that the preamble was a very important part of NCERT textbooks.

Earlier, the Opposition Congress party raised the issue of dropping the Preamble from certain NCERT textbooks in Rajya Sabha.

Congress party spreading lies: Dharmendra Pradhan over preamble removal claim

Amid the ongoing row over the issue, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan lashed out at the Congress party, accusing it of spreading lies and confusion.

“The Congress party is engaged in spreading lies and confusion. We expect that a person sitting in a responsible position like the Leader of the Opposition should not mislead the House. Modiji's government is committed to the Constitution,” Dharmendra Pradhan told ANI, urging the senior Congress party leader to apologise for their remarks.

Apart from rejecting Congress's claim of removal of the preamble from NCERT textbooks, Pradhan told ANI that more subjects of the Constitution's Preamble, Fundamental Duties, Fundamental Rights, National Anthem, etc., had been included in more books than it used to be in the past.

"Recently, the new textbooks for the 6th class have been released. In all the books, the subjects of the Constitution's Preamble, Fundamental Duties, Fundamental Rights, National Anthem, etc have been included in more books than they used to be in the past," he told ANI earlier.