Education / 'Under which govt Guj riots took place?' asks CBSE paper, board calls it 'inappropriate'

New Delhi: The Central Board of Secondary Examination paper for class 12 Sociology asked the students to name the party under which the anti-muslim riots in Gujarat in 2002 took place. The question was later termed “inappropriate” by the board which promised “strict action” against the paper setters.

On Wednesday, December 1, the board exam for class 12 Sociology took place. And the question “The unprecedented scale and spread of anti-Muslim violence in Gujarat in 2002 took place under which government?” was asked which raised the controversy.

The options given to the students were— Congress, BJP, Democratic and Republican.

Soon after the exam and the complaints, the board termed the question in “violation of the CBSE guidelines” and tweeted “A question has been asked in today's class 12 sociology Term 1 exam which is inappropriate and in violation of the CBSE guidelines for external subject experts for setting question papers.CBSE acknowledges the error made and will take strict action against the responsible persons.”

In another tweet, CBSE also gave an explanation for terming the question as inappropriate and said that the questions should be neutral in all senses.

“The CBSE guidelines for paper setters clearly state that they have to ensure the questions should be academic-oriented only and should be class, religion neutral and should not touch upon domains that could harm sentiments of people based on social and political choices,” tweeted CBSE.

While many pointed out other mistakes in the question paper, others asked how the question is inappropriate if it is a part of the syllabus? 

“How can you afford to be apologetic when this content is the part of textbook’?” wrote a Twitter user.

The text of the book reads, “In fact, the two most traumatic contemporary instances of communal violence occurred under each of the major political parties. The anti-Sikh riots of Delhi in 1984 took place under a Congress regime. The unprecedented scale and spread of anti-Muslim violence in Gujarat in 2002 took place under a BJP government.”

CBSE is currently conducting board exams for classes 10 and 12 in a hybrid manner in two terms. The term 1 is ongoing in the form of multiple-choice based questions.