Kolkata, Sep 3 (IANS): West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Thursday accused the previous Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress government in the state of deliberately and strategically twisting the Bengali syllabus with an ulterior political motive to divide Bengali-speaking people.

“Mother was referred to as ‘Amma’ and not ‘Ma’. Similarly, the sky was referred to as 'Asman’ and not ‘Akash’. Bengali language was distorted in a planned manner. The syllabus was created in such a way that the lessons of Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar or Swami Vivekananda remained neglected in the education system. Division was created in the minds of children through such distortion of language,” the Chief Minister said while addressing an annual event of Vivekananda Vidya Vikas Parishad, the state-level affiliate committee of Vidya Bharati in West Bengal.

According to him, first the Left Front regime and then the Trinamool Congress government ruined the education system in West Bengal.

“For 34 years, the Communists hindered the promotion and spread of the Bengali language. They also barred English at the primary level and thus weakened the education system. Thereafter, during the Trinamool government's tenure, the school syllabus was subjected to politics of appeasement. The Bengali language was distorted. Statesmanship and patriotism started disappearing in the education system that the Trinamool Congress started,” the Chief Minister said.

He also strongly criticised the previous Mamata Banerjee regime for introducing a chapter in the school syllabus on the anti-acquisition movement at Singur in Hooghly district spearheaded by the Trinamool Congress that ultimately led to the exit of Tata Motors from its proposed small car project there.

“The school syllabus had detailed the destructive movement to drive away the Tatas. But it did not have the biography of Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee. The syllabus had a reference to former West Bengal Education Minister Partha Chatterjee. But it did not have the biographies of many great freedom fighters from the state. If such an education system had continued, Bengal's reforms, patriotism, statehood, and nationalism would have been lost,” the Chief Minister said.

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This report was published from a syndicated wire feed. Apart from the headline, the EdexLive Desk has not edited the copy.