Governor Ramnaresh Yadav is coming out with a small book on Tatya Tope to correct inaccuracies in a higher secondary school textbook, published by the Madhya Pradesh education centre, about the death of one of the main heroes of the first war of Independence. Yadav has objected to the portion that says someone else was hanged in Tope’s place in Shivpuri, Madhya Pradesh. The Governor says no one else but Tope was hanged and a memorial in the town confirms this. Over past five months, the 85-year-old wrote to the government thrice to seek the desired revision but in vain. The BJP government told him his initiative had come a little late in the day because books had already been distributed. But he was told the corrections would be made from the next academic session beginning July and the chapter would not be taught. A source in Raj Bhavan said the Governor had written to district collectors and scholars asking for information about Tope’s martyrdom and collected so much information that he decided to write a book — Tatya Tope: Ek Swatantrata Sangram Senani. Yadav went public with his criticism at Indore Thursday when he said the MP government was teaching wrong history for the past 25 years. “You need to be alert. Officials will not bother and keep sleeping. They will get their salary,” he told the golden jubilee celebrations of Indore’s Devi Ahilya University. Incidentally, there are different versions of Tope’s death. His descendants say he was killed in the battle, not captured alive and hanged later. Tatya Tope’s Operation Red Lotus, a book written by US-based Parag Tope, challenges the account that he was hanged in Shivpuri. Parag’s Delhi-based brother Rajesh, who has contributed to the book, says the freedom fighter was killed by Major Meade.The English officer’s wife wrote a book in 1864 giving an account of his death. Venod Sharma quits Assembly, to float party CHANDIGARH: Former Union minister Venod Sharma resigned from the Haryana Assembly Friday, clearing the decks for him to float a new political party. In the run up to Lok Sabha elections in Haryana, Sharma had sent his resignation to Congress president Sonia Gandhi and made a futile bid to enter the BJP and the Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC). Earlier this week, former state minister Gopal Goyal Kanda also withdrew support to the Bhupinder Singh Hooda government with plans to launch a political party. However, the Congress still has 44 of its own MLAs besides support of six Independents and one BSP MLA in the 90-member Assembly. In an embarrassment to CM Bhupender Singh Hooda, Venod severed his more than four decade old ties with Congress over its “undemocratic functioning” in March this year and declared his support for the BJP PM nominee Narendra Modi. ENS
