A circular was issued to the Telangana District Education Officers (DEOs) on Friday, June 23, by the Telangana State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT). The council issued orders, directing them to download the image of the amended preamble and have it pasted on the cover page of the Class X Social Studies textbook, according to The New Indian Express.
The instructions were issued in the wake of a recent controversy that asserted that the words 'Socialist' and 'Secular' were omitted from the printed preamble in the same textbook.
The circular explained that the oversight occurred during the process of redesigning the textbook, resulting in the image of the original preamble being used instead of the amended version. It was signed by M Radha Reddy, Director of SCERT.
Previous events
The Telangana State United Teachers' Federation (TSUTF) had earlier submitted a representation on June 22, Thursday, to the secretary of the education department, complaining that the words 'socialist' and 'secular' were "removed" from the Preamble and published on the cover page of the Class X Social Studies textbook which was allowed to be published by the SCERT.
The TSUTF emphasised that these two words were included in the Preamble through the 42nd Constitutional Amendment, the TSUTF recalled.
The federation claimed that when there is a debate ensuing regarding that secularism is in danger in India, the publication of the old Preamble "the way some people want it" instead of the one that is in force gives rise to several doubts.
