New Delhi: Raging feud between the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) and historians over alleged factual errors in the textbooks heated- up on December 13 with the council warning the 'agitated academics' to refrain from "slandering institutions of national importance with the motive of gaining political mileage."

Appealing to all those who "rushed to the press with unfounded allegations about the factual inaccuracy" of the NCERT's History textbooks not to "slander insitutions of national importance with the motive of gaining political mileage," council director J S Rajput, in a statement said, "All these people were spokespersons of a particular ideological leaning."

Claiming that thousands of students, parents and teachers suffered on account of the petition filed in the Supreme Court, Rajput said, "the prolonged suspense over the fate of the Social Sciences, History and Hindi syllabi on the implementation of which a stay was issued by the apex court considerably disturbed and delayed the preparation and production of books".

The final judgement of the apex court was a landmark ruling, he said adding it covered "an entire gamut of issues relating to secularism and the national character, its linkages with religion and the need for proper understanding of the basic tenets of religion".

Pointing out that in the case of two of its books, revised editions had been published within a month of the original release, Rajput reiterated that NCERT valued every suggestion on further improvement of its publications.

PTI