By IANS,
Thiruvananthapuram : Minutes after national Youth Congress president Ashok Tanwar Tuesday urged the state unit to oppose the “wrong policies” of the Left government, the police brutally beat up some Youth Congress activists when they tried to break a security cordon here.
Addressing Youth Congress activists outside the state assembly, Tanwar asked them not to back out from their protest as “the Left government is trying to distort history and thrust the communist ideology through textbooks”.
“The Left government here is trying to distort history and they say Gandhiji had no role in it. We will fight this out. We will have to stand united to fight this onslaught. All the Congress leaders in the country are with you,” said Tanwar.
For nearly two weeks now the student and the youth wing of the Congress party are on a war path, demanding immediate withdrawal of the Class VII social science textbook. The contents of the Class 7 social studies textbook are being objected to by opposition parties and religious groups. They allege the book contains very little about leaders of India’s freedom movement and instead tries to indoctrinate children with the communist ideology.
Soon after Tanwar’s address, the police naton charged the Youth Congress workers after they tried to break the security cordon. Over a dozen activists were brutally beaten up and later arrested.
State Youth Congress chief T. Siddique was also beaten up by the police when he intervened to talk to Revadha Chandrasekhar, the city police commissioner.
The police also used water canon to disburse the protesting Youth Congress workers.