As many as 73 academicians, including vice chancellors of central universities, NIT directors and IIM chairpersons, on Thursday termed the withdrawal of names over the NCERT textbook row a "spectacle" by some "arrogant and self-interested" people.
The 33 academicians who have also asked NCERT to drop their names from political science textbooks include Kanti Prasad Bajpai, the former JNU professor who currently serves as the vice dean at National University Singapore; Pratap Bhanu Mehta, the former vice-chancellor of Ashoka University; Rajeev Bhargava among others.
The NCERT has said rationalisation of textbooks is an ongoing exercise and that dropping off the names of those contributing to the development of these books was ‘out of question’