Leader of opposition in Punjab Assembly Sukhpal Singh Khaira today accused Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh of "acting at the behest" of BJP in "tinkering with" the chapters on Sikh Gurus in the history book.
A controversy had erupted over the history book of Class 12 with opposition parties, including the Akali Dal and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) accusing the state government of deleting the history of Sikh Gurus from the history book of class 12.
"The Sikh Gurus history has been removed from the books (of Punjab School Education Board PSEB). There is a hidden agenda (behind deletion of history book) and it seems CM was acting like a pawn ... infact, Amarinder is playing BJP's game.
"Have you ever heard a single word from Amarinder against the BJP," asked Khaira while talking to reporters here.
Khaira, an MLA from Bholath, further said that whatever the chief minister does is as per the instructions given by the BJP, and alleged that even the state's police was run by the government in centre.
When asked why would Amarinder act at the behest of the BJP, Khaira said it is because his son-in-law had been booked by the CBI while there is a case filed by the Income Tax department against his son.
Demanding white paper on the controversy surrounding history book of class 12, he claimed that "pruning" of chapters on Sikh Gurus was done at a "mass scale".
The 22 chapters on Sikh history in the book has been reduced to just two, he said.
"Number of pages on Sikh history in the book which used to be 250, has now been reduced to just 20 pages," he added.
Importantly, the Akali Dal had also demanded a probe into what they call a "deep rooted conspiracy" to rob the future generations of Punjabis from knowledge about the history of Sikh Gurus and Sikh warriors of Punjab.
Earlier, Amarinder had lambasted the opposition for trying to spread "misinformation" on a sensitive religious issue and had said that they had shown "gross irresponsibility" by making a "baseless" public statement without bothering to check the facts.
He claimed that the chapters pertaining to Sikh history had only been shifted from class 12 to class 10.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)