Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala general education minister V Sivankutty slammed the union government for not consulting with the states on its “move to bring drastic changes” to the textbooks. He was responding to queries regarding the NCERT panel's recommendation to replace 'India' with 'Bharat' in school textbooks.

Addressing the media on Thursday, Sivankutty stated that the government should have consulted with the states in accordance with the rights and principles enshrined in constitutions. 

Sivankutty opined that the state would defend the moves to “distort history and saffronisation.” 

"We strongly oppose the move to distort historical facts. When the Centre tried to make such a move in the past, we published additional textbooks to cover the topics removed from the NCERT syllabus. We are the only state in India to take up such an effort," he said. 

He went on to say that since education falls in the concurrent list, states hold the right to have a final say on the matter.