New Delhi, May 20: The Congress-led coalition has yet to announce who will head the human resource development ministry but the minister will not have to wait long for the Left’s wish list.

Academics close to the Left, the largest coalition ally, have drawn up a charter of demands that seeks to erase what they feel is the Murli Manohar Joshi legacy.

Joshi, the BJP’s vanquished HRD minister, had brought in a new school curriculum, changed school textbooks and sought to decrease the fees at Indian institutes of management. He was also accused of appointing nominees close to him to top positions in as many as 10 academic institutions.

The Congress and the Left have been hoping and waiting for his exit to implement their own agenda for education and culture.

At a media conference of the Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust (Sahmat), a cultural organisation close to the CPM, Left-wing academics said the new government must scrap the curriculum laid down by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) under J.S. Rajput, considered a Joshi protégé.

“The new government should withdraw the curriculum and restore the old NCERT textbooks,” said Arjun Dev, former head of the NCERT’s social sciences department and an author of a history textbook junked by Joshi.

Dev said a committee should be set up to examine the “factual and deliberate errors” in the new NCERT textbooks, particularly those dealing with history, political science and sociology.

“The NCERT’s new textbooks reflect a philosophy espoused by the BJP that has been defeated,” said Congress MP Eduardo Faleiro, who has been at the forefront of the party’s campaign against Joshi’s alleged saffronisation of education.

History has always been a pawn in the hands of political parties, to be manipulated at will to buttress and deny the authenticity of events to suit their respective political agendas.

For instance, the BJP had cited “historical evidence” to claim the existence of a Ram Janmabhoomi temple, only to be challenged by academics from the other side, who held up their own interpretations and proof which suggested otherwise.

The Congress and the Left say they will set right the agenda “distorted” by Joshi, amid speculation that Arjun Singh, who was HRD minister during the Narasimha Rao regime, may reoccupy the chair. The Left parties will be happy to have Singh who they feel will not have any problem with their wish list.

The Left is also demanding an inquiry into the mode of appointment of heads of institutions like the NCERT, the Indian Council of Historical Research, the University Grants Commission, the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies and the National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration.

Also on the new agenda is a demand to scrap the fundamental right to education bill. The Left wants it revoked because it believes the bill will replace “good quality” formal education with “inferior” informal education.