rewriting history, etc.

[Robert Zydenbos]

Sundays' _The Hindu_ has a scathing article on the BJP government's
educational and research policies titled "The return of the thought
police". "The Vajpayee Government, barely two weeks into office after
its return to power, has lost no time reviving its unfinished academic
agenda and, for starters, has installed its own men as heads of the
Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) and the Indian Council of
Social Science Research (ICSSR)." A disturbing article:

http://www.indiaserver.com/thehindu/1999/10/31/stories/0531134a.htm

The article also says: "The Union Human Resource Development
Minister, Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi, has been typically aggressive,
calling his critics ``fascists'' - ironically a charge hitherto hurled at him
and his fellow ideologues by the Left." -- This reminds me of K. Elst,
the difference of course being that I did not call him or his friend
Rajaram a fascist. He was off to a false start. Or maybe he thought he
was writing about somebody else.

See also the companion article, "The use and abuse of history":
"Rewriting history and doctoring textbooks have been an old Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh passion, and wherever the BJP has come to
power the first thing it has done is to tamper with the school
curriculum." See:

http://www.indiaserver.com/thehindu/1999/10/31/stories/0531134b.htm

RZ