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Bhopal, Jun 23: Three days ago, in a controversial move, the Madhya Pradesh government removed a poem on Jawaharlal Nehru and his memoirs on Kamla Nehru from school textbooks in the state.

However, chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan defended the decision on Thursday, saying, "The school course material all over the country will be reviewed".

 In an informal chat with reporters, Chauhan said Jawaharlal Nehru was not the only great leader of the country. Everyone who had made sacrifices for the country's freedom should be given their due place in the school curriculum. He added that it was unfair to highlight only one family as the saviour of the nation.

Meanwhile, Congress workers have threatened to launch a statewide stir. They burnt effigies of Chauhan protesting the removal of the poem Chacha Nehru Mujhe Bana Do from class I syllabus and Nehru's memoirs on his wife Kamla Nehru from class VII course.

Several children wearing Nehru's sherwani also took part in the demonstration. Left Parties condemned the changes in the school syllabus and accused BJP of trying to end progressive values among children.

State Congress General Secretary Manak Agrawal alleged that the BJP was saffronising education on the directions of the RSS.

The move came barely a week after the state government removed popular English nursery rhymes including Baa Baa Black Sheep, Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and Johnny, Johnny Yes Papa, from primary school textbooks. A short story, Abu Khan Ki Bakri, written by former president Zakir Hussain has also been erased from Class IV textbooks.