J&K Police Raid Education Office, Publisher Over Controversial School Books
The Jammu and Kashmir Police on Monday searched the office of the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan in Jammu and a publisher's office in Noida as part of an investigation into two books accused of containing separatist and anti-national content. The books were supplied to government school libraries, sparking a political debate over scrutiny lapses and censorship.
Counter-intelligence teams questioned the Samagra Shiksha director and other officials at the Channi Himmat office on the outskirts of Jammu. Another team searched the premises of a publisher in Noida. No arrests were made, and no official statement was issued by the police.
Officials said the searches aimed to determine how the two books reached school libraries before their content could be fully vetted. According to an education official, four sub-committees of academicians and experts had been formed to select books after library grants were received under the Centre's Samagra Shiksha scheme. They shortlisted 463 titles submitted by 364 publishers.
During departmental scrutiny, “highly inappropriate content” was flagged in two books: “Personalities and Legends of J&K” by Hilal Ahmad and Santosh Meena, published by Jammu-based Oberoi Book Service, and “Great Personalities of Jammu and Kashmir” by Sushant Giri, published by New Delhi-based Anurag Prakashan. By the time the issue was identified, 123 copies of the first book had already reached schools in Jammu, Ramban, and Udhampur, while 128 copies of the second had been supplied to schools in Jammu and Baramulla. Both books were subsequently withdrawn.
On July 4, the administration of Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha withdrew the books from school libraries, suspended eight school education officials, and ordered a high-level inquiry. The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) registered a First Information Report (FIR) under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
The controversy drew reactions from political parties. The BJP, Congress, and other groups flagged alleged lapses in the selection process. The J&K Peoples' Forum alleged that “Personalities and Legends of J&K” used terms such as “India-occupied Kashmir” and described Maqbool Bhat, the founder of the banned Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), as “Shaheed-e-Azam”. Bhat was hanged in Tihar jail on February 11, 1984, after being convicted for the murder of a CID inspector.
Amid calls for censorship, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, the chief cleric of Kashmir and chairman of the Hurriyat Conference, argued against banning books. “Kashmiris are proud of their civilizational legacy... You cannot ban everything written before 2019,” he said on Monday. “I don’t think banning books works. If you ban books, what kind of message are you giving to society?”
This incident comes a year after the J&K home department, on the sixth anniversary of the abrogation of Article 370, banned the publication and circulation of 25 books, alleging that they promoted a “false narrative” and “secessionism” in the Union territory.
