Joshi defends Rajput

Making a rare appearance at the BJP headquarters on Friday, former HRD minister Murli Manohar Joshi launched a scathing attack against his successor Arjun Singh for “acting as a tool of Communist vendetta’’ against former NCERT director J.S. Rajput and for imposing “a fraud’’ on the education system by reintroducing “old and discredited’’ books in the history syllabi.

Joshi’s lengthy defence of Rajput and attack on the reintroduction of textbooks that had been withdrawn by the NDA regime is the start of a concerted BJP offensive against the year-long “desaffronisation’’ process being undertaken by the UPA government, sources said.

In a separate statement Delhi BJP chief Harshvardhan said the re-introduced textbooks by historians such as Romila Thapar were “shameful and hurtful’’ to Hindu sentiments. Joshi did not directly refer to the “anti-Hindu’’ content but attacked them on the ground that they were “outdated books prepared on the basis of the syllabi of 1975.’’

Joshi, backed by NDA convenor George Fernandes, also stoutly defended J.S. Rajput who was charged with nepotism, arrogance, etc were recently confirmed by the Sathyam Committee.