New Delhi, Nov. 26 :    New Delhi, Nov. 26:  It's now officially Akbar vs Aurangzeb. When the National Council for Educational Research and Training 'rewrites' history in its new social science textbooks for the next academic session from March, it will ensure that Aurangzeb has more space in the chapter on medieval history than Akbar. 'Why should we give so much space to Akbar and less to Aurangzeb? After all, Aurangzeb had many more activities to his credit than Akbar,' says Hari Om, the sole professor of history in the council. The social science text books are being authored by NCERT faculty members. The professor is digging into history and an old debate: was Akbar more significant than Aurangzeb? Right wing academics have always blamed Left-liberal historians for expanding on Akbar's reign because of his 'secular' politics and squeezing out Aurangzeb's rule because he represented the 'tyrannical' face of Islam. Satish Chandra, whose textbook on medieval history has been reviled by the NCERT as 'biased', says: 'When they say Aurangzeb engaged in more activities than Akbar what they mean is destroying temples.' 'I find it very strange when someone tries to make out Akbar's rule as less significant than Aurangzeb's. It was Akbar who laid down the entire administrative structure - the revenue system,' he underlines. But the authors of the new NCERT textbooks believe they have a 'historical' role to play - to set the record 'straight' by dropping 'distortions' from the new textbooks and also the 'irrelevant'. History, in any case, will have to undergo a massive surgery to fit into the new social science textbooks, which will teach not only history, but civics, geography and economics as well. In the process, 'unwanted' parts of history the current NCERT authors believe to be unnecessary will be cut out. For instance, Professor Hari Om, who will author the section on modern Indian history, says: 'Why should we elaborate so much about the 1857 mutiny? We will just sum it up - its causes and the fallout.' There will be also other events that will be pruned. But what about world history? That is still a grey area. Prof. Hari Om says he was 'astounded' when he read the present textbook on modern India authored by Arjun Dev. 'There is no mention of the Day of Direct Action - a call given by the Muslim League. The author is soft on Jinnah and the League,' he says. The motto of the present academic debate seems to be to get even with the 'past'. 'So far, the Congress and the Left have had a field day. Then nobody said anything,' said a BJP leader. So where does that place history? Nobody knows. The ruling party is ready to script history the way it wants it to be taught. The authors in the NCERT feel R.S. Sharma has quoted only one source when he talked about beef-eating being a practice during ancient times. 'There are other sources also,' they say. When they write the new texts, are they going to mention all the sources, including the one that mentions beef-eating? The authors prefer not to answer.