National monitoring panel's decision on cartoons to be final

NEW DELHI: Amid a row over Ambedkar's cartoon in a textbook, NCERT today said it used such illustrations as "good pedagogical tools" but maintained that the decision of national monitoring committee in this regard would be final.

"What the national monitoring committee decides will be an all round decision. The books will not be affected and will come out on time," NCERT director Pravin Sinclair said.

The committee, which meets here on July 14, will examine the recommendations of the Thorat panel set up to study the cartoon of class IX-XII political science text books following the cartoon row.

The panel report has, however, been opposed in sections of the academia and by one of the panel members -- M S S Pandian-- who found nothing inappropriate in the book.

"NCERT put the cartoons because it believed those are good pedagogical tools. But we dont want people to be hurt. whether they are hurt or not we need a detailed feedback," Sinclair told CNN-IBN in an interview.

She said before releasing the books, they were tried among the students on a small scale and as a quick trial. "There was positive feedbacks and thats why they (the textbook committee) created the whole set," she said.

Sources, on the other hand, said NCERT has made up its mind about removing the two cartoons which invited controversy though a final view would be taken only after the forthcoming meeting of the national monitoring committee.