Education minister V Sivankutty justifies assembly ruckus during UDF tenure

T'puram: Education minister V Sivankutty on Sunday justified the ruckus and destruction of public property inside legislative assembly during the budget presentation under the Oommen Chandy govt, saying it was driven by a sense of responsibility to protect the movement rather than by personal gain.Inaugurating the state conference of All Kerala Private College Teachers' Association (AKPCTA) in Thiruvananthapuram, the minister responded to remarks made by opposition leader V D Satheesan, who recently mocked him by saying that the person who once climbed onto the assembly's table and created a ruckus was now the education minister.
"There was an issue inside the assembly once. Everyone knows about it. It happened according to the situation. We have a responsibility to safeguard our movement without looking at personal profit or loss," Sivankutty said. The incident referred to the dramatic scenes in 2015, when members of the then opposition disrupted proceedings, climbed onto the speaker's dais, and damaged furniture and equipment inside the House. The minister also launched a sharp attack on National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), accusing it of distorting historical facts in school textbooks. "NCERT is writing absurdities in textbooks. Though delayed, the court intervened," he said, referring to controversies surrounding revisions related to Mahatma Gandhi's assassination, Gujarat riots and Mughal period. Sivankutty said when such content was ‘distorted and printed', Kerala was the only state to bring out alternative textbooks to present what he described as a more accurate version of history. He further alleged that there was a systematic attempt to ‘saffronise' higher education and called for resistance against such moves.