Only Stalin and Lenin, no Gandhi in school textbooks: Tripura CM Biplab Kumar Deb aims to revise syllabus

Biplab Kumar Deb at Tripura University on Tuesday, October 2.

AGARTALA: Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb once again hit the headlines. This time for his comment on Indian history, or the lack of it, in state school textbooks.

According to the 46-year-old, school textbooks have chapters on former USSR president Joseph Stalin, communist leader Vladimir Ilych Lenin and Russian Revolution. But, there's hardly anything on Indian leaders including father of the nation Mahatma Gandhi.

“It's very tough to find Indian history in textbooks these days. They've Stalin, Lenin & Russian Revolution etc and I've no problem with that but Gandhi should be there as well,” he said the Tripura CM this during his address at Tripura University on the varsity's Foundation Day and birth anniversary celebrations of Mahatma Gandhi Tuesday.

To bring about a change, the Tripura government will now introduce study material in schools on Indian leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, former President Late APJ Abdul Kalam.

The state will also introduce NCERT textbooks in Tripura schools and implement it by 2019. 

The Tripura CM is known for his unique statements that often stir nation-wide debates.

In August, Deb grabbed the limelight by saying ducks raise the Oxygen level in water bodies when they swim. He wants to distribute ducks among villagers in his state because they boost the rural economy. But he added saying ducks come with rare features -- they recycle water and their swimming increases Oxygen levels in water bodies which is very beneficial for fishes. 

In April, he had claimed that the Internet is nothing new to India and that it existed even in the days of Mahabharata. 

In May, he claimed that Rabindranath Tagore gave away his Nobel Prize in protest against the British, in an apparent reference to Tagore's protest against Jallianwalla Bagh massacre of 1919.

He also claimed that Gautam Buddha walked over the sea to Japan and former Miss World Diana Hayden was unworthy of being a beauty pageant winner.