Shahabuddin's Letter to HRD Minister, 2 November, 1999

The Indian Express has reported on 30 October, 1999 that you have constituted a panel to 'prepare' school textbooks for moral education for class I to XII.

I presume the textbooks will be first prepared by the NCERT and then scrutinized by the Committee you have set up. There is need to eliminate the common apprehension in the religious minorities that in the name of moral education, the theology and the cultural ethos of Hinduism will be imposed on the non-Hindu children of the country and that they will thus be brainwashed of their  religious and cultural particularities.

I request you to include one eminent theologian each from the Muslim, Sikh and Christian communities in this Committee. I also request you to have. a copy of the Terms of Reference of the Committee sent to me