Gujarat drops idea of including Modi's life in school syllabus

AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat government has dropped its plan to incorporate a chapter on PM Narendra Modi in school textbooks after strong objections from the leader. Modi took to microblogging site Twitter on Friday to oppose the move on part of the state government that he led as a four-time chief minister before becoming Prime Minister on May 26.

“Am reading in the news that some states want to include Narendra Modi's life struggles as a part of their school curriculum,” Modi said in the first of a series of tweets.

“I firmly believe that the life story of living individuals should not be included as a part of the school curriculum,” he tweeted next, before posting a third comment, “India has a rich history of several stalwarts who made India what it is today. Young minds should read about these greats and emulate them.”

Recently, an Ahmedabad-based publisher had released a comic book ‘Bal Narendra’ narrating Modi’s life as a child. The 46-page book retails across Gujarat, Mumbai and New Delhi, apart from online portals.

Gujarat’s education minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama had earlier announced that Modi’s life would be incorporated as a chapter in social science textbooks of primary section, from the academic session beginning in 2015. Although Chudasama had conceived the idea with an intention to narrate the Prime Minister’s life as an inspirational story for children, Modi asked him to shelve the plan.

“As per telephone instructions of Shri Narendra Modi ji, he is not ready to put any lessons of his life in textbook. So we are not putting it,” Chudasama tweeted.

Chudasama had earlier indicated that the chapter might include events from Modi’s childhood, humble family background, school days, struggle at different stages of his life and inspiring events until he became PM.