Education IIT Gandhinagar To Review Michel Danino’s Role After Supreme Court Order In NCERT Textbook Controversy

IIT Gandhinagar has announced that it will review the role of Michel Danino as a guest professor following the Supreme Court's order to dissociate from him in the NCERT textbook controversy. The controversy surrounds a chapter in a withdrawn NCERT textbook that discussed corruption in the judiciary. The Supreme Court has instructed the Centre, state governments, and public institutions to distance themselves from three experts linked to the drafting of the contentious chapter. The experts include Michel Danino, Suparna Diwakar, and Alok Prasanna Kumar. The IIT Gandhinagar standing committee will evaluate Danino's association with the institution in light of the court's order. The review is expected to determine whether Danino's appointment should be terminated or modified. The Supreme Court's direction is a significant development in the ongoing controversy surrounding the NCERT textbook. The court has made strong observations about the experts involved in drafting the chapter, stating that they either do not have reasonable informed knowledge about the Indian judiciary or deliberately misrepresented facts to project a negative image of the judiciary. The court has also noted that there is no justification for the experts to remain involved in the preparation of school curriculum or textbooks meant for future generations. Michel Danino has been associated with IIT-Gandhinagar since 2011 and has received the Padma Shri in 2017 for his contributions to literature and education. He has also served as a member of the Centre's committee tasked with preparing a new curriculum framework in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. The review by IIT-Gandhinagar is expected to have significant implications for Danino's role at the institution and may set a precedent for other institutions to re-evaluate their associations with experts involved in similar controversies.