Union Minister of State for External Affairs and Education Rajkumar Ranjan Singh has warned SCERT, Delhi to rectify the wrongly attributing Manipuri’s indigenous game ‘Mukna Kangjei’ to Mizoram in its textbook ‘Learnings through Traditional Games’.
Rajkumar Ranjan Singh has also submitted a written complaint to the authority concerned of SCERT, Delhi on Monday. The complaint stated that Manipuri’s indigenous game ‘Mukna Kangjei’ has been wrongly attributed to Mizoram in the textbook titled ‘Learning through Traditional Games’ published by SCERT, Delhi for the academic year 2023-24.
“This being a serious issue, the matter may be enquired into to ascertain and furnish the factual position at the earliest. If the mistakes pointed out in the media reports are found to be correct, the concerned authorities may be directed to carry out the required corrections in the textbook at the earliest,” it further stated.
RK Ranjan reportedly called SCERT officials and pointed out that information related to Manipur is usually printed with false information while publishing any information related to educational matters.
In the textbook titled ‘Learnings through Traditional Games’ published by SCERT, Delhi under NCERT Manipuri’s indigenous game ‘Mukna Kangjei’ has been wrongly attributed to Mizoram. However, the content under the header, ‘Mukna Kangjei’ in the textbook is related to the history of Manipur.
Recalling an earlier incident, he further pointed out that in some textbooks, the photograph of ‘Siroy Lily’ was found replaced by some common lily found on the streets of Delhi. He warned the SCERT authority to rectify the error and consult the respective authorities of a state before printing the textbooks.
Meanwhile, Sagolband assembly constituency MLA Rajkumar Imo posted on X that “Mukna-Kangjei is a traditional sport of Manipur, a variant of hockey and involves wrestling too, thus known as Wrestling-Hockey. NCERT has made a gross error by publishing the association of this traditional sport with Mizoram. It is purely a traditional sport of the State of Manipur. NCERT needs to rectify this mistake immediately. Our State Education Minister Shri Th Basanta Singh should take this matter up with the Government of India to solve this issue and ensure that such errors are not repeated again by NCERT. @ncert” (sic).
Manipur People’s Party (MPP) also strongly condemned NCERT, New Delhi for wrongly publishing the Mukna Kangjei, a traditional sport of Manipur as Mizoram’s.
MPP in a release on Monday demanded that NCERT should clarify for their wrong publications in student’s books at the earliest, and the Manipur government should also intervene to rectify the mistake which will mislead the students. It warned of taking legal action and carrying out protests against the false report made by NCERT if they failed to give a clarification.
