‘Distortion’ of Sikh history: Case registered against writers of banned books

Chandigarh, May 14

The Punjab Police on Saturday registered a case against writers of three history books, which were banned for allegedly distorting facts related to the Sikh history.

The action came after the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) banned the books for Class 12 earlier this month with Education Minister Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer at that time saying action would be taken against the writers.

The case was registered at a Mohali police station on the complaint of farmer leader Baldev Singh Sirsa against Manjit Singh Sodhi, writer of “Modern ABC of History of Punjab”, Mahinder Pal Kaur, writer of “History of Punjab”, and M S Mann, author of “History of Punjab”.

The books have been published by three different Jalandhar-based publishers.

The decision to ban these books was taken following a report by an inquiry committee.

The committee was formed following a complaint by Sirsa, who had said the books contained some remarks which were not in accordance with Sikh history.

Many organisations had earlier held protests outside the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) office, demanding that the history books be banned for distorting facts related to Sikh history.

The FIR was lodged Under Sections 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc), 295-A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage reli­gious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or reli­gious beliefs), and 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) of the IPC.