The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) has added another state to the map of its School Thik Karo campaign with one of its key leaders going on an inspection drive in the BJP-ruled Odisha. The CJP intervention came even as the Nabnirman Yuva Chhatra Sangathan (NYCS) intensified its agitation and announced plans to gherao the Odisha Assembly.
CJP co-convenor Saurav Das on Monday reached Bhubaneswar, taking the group’s School Thik Karo campaign to Odisha and throwing its weight behind students protesting errors in the state government’s school textbooks. Das demanded the resignation of Odisha School and Mass Education Minister Nityananda Gond, arguing that accountability must be fixed for the errors.
The textbook controversy has been simmering for months in Odhisha after 1,678 factual, typographical and printing errors were detected in textbooks across subjects for Classes I to VIII. The Odisha government, led by BJP leader and Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi, subsequently suspended four officials, initiated disciplinary proceedings against six others and accepted recommendations aimed at overhauling the textbook review process.
With the NYCS-led protests continuing, the government has now begun distributing revised textbooks after incorporating corrections, according to reports.
The NYCS is the youth and student wing of the Odisha-based farmers’ organisation Naba Nirman Krushak Sangathan (NNKS). It planned to gherao the Odisha Assembly on Tuesday.
CJP co-convenor Saurav Das said he visited three schools in the BJP-ruled state. “The CJP extends its support to the activists of NYCS who have been demanding reforms in school education and the resignation of [Nityananda] Gond over the errors in the textbooks,” Das said. “We feel that accountability should be fixed for the massive errors in the textbooks and the minister should resign,” he added.
The BJP has been in power in Odisha for a little over two years since coming to power and ending the BJD’s 24-year rule in June 2024.
The government led by CM Mohan Charan Majhi has faced scrutiny over governance and crime, while a setback in his own Keonjhar municipality has fed discussion of a BJD revival. The Majhi government has also had to contend with questions over his leadership within political circles and speculation over alternative BJP power centres, particularly after Dharmendra Pradhan’s return to Odisha following the CJP’s agitation in New Delhi.
CJP TAKES SCHOOL CAMPAIGN TO ODISHA
Saurav Das arrived in Bhubaneswar on Monday and was accompanied by CJP Joint Secretary (Organisation) Balkrishna Shukla and members of the organisation’s Odisha unit. He said he had come to meet protesters and people on hunger strike under the banner of the NYCS over the textbook controversy.
Das visited government schools in and around Bhubaneswar. He said in a social media post that he visited three schools, including an SC/ST Ashram school in Bhubaneswar, and alleged poor hygiene conditions and dilapidated structures inside school complexes.
“All schools had terrible hygiene conditions. The Odisha government needs to ensure this is fixed, especially since this is a reason teenage girls drop out of schooling,” Das wrote on X. “Some structures within school complexes were dilapidated, almost dangerous. More needs to be done to maintain and build better.”
The Odisha leg extends a campaign CJP has taken to government schools in several states. In BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh, Das last week inspected a government primary school in Noida and raised concerns over toilets and infrastructure, while CJP teams have also conducted school inspections in Rajasthan and Maharashtra.
On Tuesday, Saurav Das was in action in Greater Noida of Uttar Pradesh.
CJP BACKS ODISHA TEXTBOOK PROTESTERS
Das’s intervention also put CJP alongside the NYCS agitation over the Odisha textbook controversy.
Das said he had travelled to the state at the invitation of NNKS convenor Akshaya Kumar and NYCS leader Manwar Ali. The protesters in Odisha have been demanding education reforms, accountability for the textbook errors and Gond’s resignation. The NYCS satyagraha began on August 20, and by September 21 protesters had been demonstrating for about 33 days over textbook errors.
NNKS founder Akshaya Kumar, 61, began an indefinite hunger strike on September 5 and had been fasting for over a fortnight when Saurav Das joined the protest on Monday.
“The government has spent Rs 380 crore on printing textbooks for schoolchildren, but they were found to have multiple mistakes,” Das told ANI.
The Rs 380-crore figure has featured prominently in the agitation. The BJD, the main opposition party, has alleged a Rs 380-crore “scam” in textbook publication and sought a CBI investigation.
Addressing protesters, Das called on students and youths to participate in the peaceful Assembly gherao. “Since the government is not listening to students and youths, we are forced to hit the streets and stage a peaceful agitation,” he said, reported PTI.
Rejecting Das’ allegation, Odisha BJP spokesperson Anil Biswal said, “The CJP is a B-Team of Congress and AAP. They are finding faults in the BJP-ruled states and remain silent when police assault students and youths in Jharkhand. They are also silent over the students’ issues in Telangana, Karnataka and Kerala. CJP’s allegations are purely political in nature.”
The NYCS is gheraoing the Odisha Assembly on Tuesday as its Monsoon Session begins amid protests by BJD MLAs over textbook errors and other issues.
ODISHA GOVERNMENT MOVES TO REPLACE BOOKS
The Odisha government, meanwhile, has acknowledged serious problems with the textbooks and initiated corrective action.
Odisha School and Mass Education Minister Gond earlier said that action would be taken against those responsible following further enquiry. Four officials, including a former director of the Teachers Training and State Council of Educational Research and Training, were suspended, and disciplinary proceedings were initiated against six others. The government also accepted 14 recommendations, including a four-stage proofreading system and a Textbook Quality Assurance Cell, The New Indian Express reported.
Officials said corrected textbooks for Classes I to VIII were being distributed, and the exercise would be completed soon.
That, however, has not ended the political pressure on the BJP government of Mohan Charan Majhi. With CJP and Saurav Das joining the agitation and demanding Gond’s resignation, Odisha has become the latest BJP-ruled state where CJP’s national leadership has combined its school campaign with a broader demand for accountability from the state government.
– Ends
