Ambedkar cartoon row: 'Attack on NCERT advisor's office sad, farcical'

Former NCERT advisor Yogendra Yadav on Saturday described as "tragic and sad" the attack on the office of Suhas Palshikar in Pune who along with him had stepped down on Friday from the NCERT committee in wake of the row over cartoon of BR Ambedkar in school text books.

Pointing out that Palshikar had, during the last 10 years, been a teacher to him on Ambedkar and taught him about Ambedkar, Yadav said "such attacks are nothing but farcical".

"For someone who has taught me Ambedkar, for him to be attacked in the name of Ambedkar...nothing can be more farcical, tragic and sad then this," Yadav told CNN-IBN.

Pune police said the persons involved in the ransacking of Palshikar's office had been invited by him for discussion in his office after they raised objections on the cartoon.

A Republican Panther of India spokesman claimed responsibility for the attack, saying the cartoon amounted to an "insult" to the Dalit icon.

Yadav said he was apprehensive about the attack given that "Pune city has had a history of this kind of intolerance".

He also regretted the ruckus in Parliament over the issue saying "I saw the entire Parliament aligned in a certain way, which is most unfortunate."

Yadav was the chief advisor of the NCERT textbook development committee and Palshikar was one of its members. The Committee had approved the Class XI social science textbook that contained the cartoon.