MP bypolls: Chouhan announces awards after Rani Padmavati & Rana Pratap, school lessons on them 

BHOPAL: Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Tuesday tweeted that the saga of the valour of Mewar’s legendary Rani Padmavati will be included in the school textbooks from the next academic session. 

He also announced that the MP government will start Maharana Shaurya Puraskar and Padmini Puraskar worth Rs 2 Lakh each in the memory of the famous Mewar ruler Maharana Pratap and the Rani Padmavati.

Further, the CM tweeted that land has been allotted at the Manuabhan Tekri in Bhopal for building a grand memorial of Rani Padmavati.

Chouhan's move came 10 days after the opposition Congress promised in its 52-point vachan patra (by-poll manifesto) to organize programmes in memory of Rani Laxmibai, besides instituting awards carrying a prize of Rs 1 lakh each in the memory of the queen of Jhansi along with Rani Durgavati, Devi Ahilyabai and Avanti Bai Lodhi.

The CM’s announcements, however, aren’t new. Amid the controversy over Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Bollywood flick Padmaavat in 2017, then MP CM, while addressing a delegation of Kshatriyas at the CM House in Bhopal, had announced to include a chapter on her life in the school curriculum from the following academic year.

At the same programme, he had also announced that the state government would start Rashtramata Padmavati Award to honour people doing exemplary work in the sphere of women protection and empowerment.

At that time, Chouhan had also said that the Sanjay Leela Bhansali film won’t be allowed to be screened in the state if the “distorted facts” dishonoured the legendary queen’s exalted persona.

Importantly, the state Congress’s newfound love for the Queen of Jhansi is largely being seen as a conscious effort to target BJP Rajya Sabha member Jyotiraditya Scindia and erstwhile royal family of Gwalior for ‘siding' with the British against the Queen of Jhansi in the 1857 war.

Historians have often accused the Scindia dynasty of betraying the Queen of Jhansi and joining hands with the British to scuttle the 1857 rebellion.