A question framed in the CBSE class 12 sociology paper held on December 02, 2021, asked candidates to name the party under which the “anti-Muslim violence in Gujarat in 2002” took place. Later in the evening, the board considered it as an inappropriate question which was against the CBSE guidelines. The Board admitted that the question was irresponsibly framed and in violation of the CBSE guidelines for external subject experts for setting question papers. Furthermore, CBSE acknowledges the error made and will take strict action against the people involved.
In another tweet, CBSE further explained the paper setting protocol as “The CBSE guidelines for paper setters clearly state that they have to ensure the questions should be academic-oriented only and should be class, religion-neutral and should not touch upon domains that could harm sentiments of people based on social and political choices”.
The Controversial Question
The inappropriate question asked in the CBSE class 12th Sociology exam is as follow :
Q. “The unprecedented scale and spread of anti-muslim violence in Gujarat in 2002 took place under which government?”
The four options corresponding to this question were: Congress, BJP, Democratic and Republican.
The above question raised controversy and flooded various social media sites with objections regarding the same. While many brought up different mistakes in the question paper, others asked how the question is inappropriate if it is a part of the CBSE syllabus? “How can you afford to be apologetic when this content is part of a textbook ?” quoted a Twitter user.
The paragraph from the class 12 th Sociology book, ‘Indian Society’, reads, “In fact, the two most traumatic contemporary instances of communal violence occurred under each of the major political parties. The anti-Sikh riots of Delhi in 1984 took place under a Congress regime. The unprecedented scale and spread of anti-Muslim violence in Gujarat in 2002 took place under a BJP government.”
Another controversy that arose during the CBSE semester exams is that schools are not binding towards a few protocols. According to the rule, the Board has asked schools to print question papers either in English or in Hindi as per the demand and requirement of the students. In a statement released, the board says that “It has come to the notice that some of the examination centers are printing both English and Hindi versions of question papers and thereafter these are being distributed to the students. This is not as per the directions supplied by the CBSE,”.
