Tricolour upside down in textbook published in Bihar

Bihar State Textbook Publishing Corporation (BSTBPC), contains an image of inverted national flag on its back cover. The flag is seen with the green at top and saffron down along with national anthem published on it's back cover. According to flag code, which governs the display and use of national tricolour, the flag should be displayed completely spread out with the saffron stripe on top.

The text book, for academic session 2019-20 published under Samagra Shiksha is mandated by Sate Council For Educational Research and Teaining (SCERT)

" A Hindi textbook, Paryavaran Aur Hum, part-1, is a latest and revised version developed a in 2016", said a foreword by SCERT director. Meanwhile, the textbook's imprint suggested that as many as 7,10,853 printed copies of book have been made available for the students. A primary school teacher Arun Kumar Choudhary has requested SCERT director to take immediate steps to remove and rectify the display of inverted image of tricolour in textbook's back cover. It was necessary to provide correct information to students, he added.

The pictorial depictions on the back cover also included a misspelt word in national anthem. According to Choudhary, putting a dot above letter in Hindi, known as "anuswaar" , had been was missing from a word. Anuswaar is used to introduce sound of- m or n - in between letters. Referring to the concerned stanza in national anthem- "Tab subh mange jage", he pointed out there was no "anuswaar" in the word "maange", leading to it being pronounced as "maage".

A Darbhanga native, Choudhary is posted as teacher in a primary school, Paharpur in Amas block of Gaya. In a similar gesture in past, Choudhary had pointed out a couple of discrepancies in BSTBPC in past. He had written to concerned authorities regarding the errors in textbooks. It was later rectified at his behest. Earlier, HT had also carried a feature story on him on the occasion of teacher's day last year.

Meanwhile, an official of education department, requesting anonymity said: “It was an inadvertent mistake in the rush of things. It was unfortunate". The book has been priced at Rs 35.

When contacted, district education officer (DEO) Mahesh Prasad Singh did not respond to this reporter’s repeated phone calls. On the other hand, district program officer (Sarva Siksha Abhiya), Sanjay Kumar Dev Kanhaiya said he was aware of the printing of inverse image of national flag by mistake on the back cover of textbook concerned.

There were more than one printers involved in bringing out the textbooks. The mistake had been detected in those set of books printed by a particular printer. The set of such books have to be withdrawn for being destroyed. The DPO said that he had, however, asked the authorities not to supply books with erroneous back cover in Darbhanga. However, he was amused when told that the book was very much available at book stalls in Darbhanga. “We will provide such students free replacement”, he added.

The textbook, 1,20,000 copies, in the instant case, has been published by Tirupati Computer Stationers based in Patna.

First Published: Jun 24, 2019 08:48 IST