Bhopal: Two officials of the Madhya Pradesh Board of Secondary Education were suspended on the directives of Chief Minister Kamal Nath after a question paper for Social Science for Class 10 examination on Saturday referred to Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) as Azad Kashmir.
An MPBSE official said the paper setter and the moderator were suspended and disciplinary action would be taken against them.
The two questions were scrapped and the maximum marks were reduced to 90, said the official. One of the questions asked the candidates to identify “Azad Kashmir” on the map. The term also occurred in a match-a-pair question.
The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday hit out at the Congress government in the state. State BJP spokesperson Rajnish Agrawal, who shared an image of the question paper on Twitter, said, “Kashmir is an integral part of India. The Indian government has passed a resolution to this effect. Has Madhya Pradesh’s Congress regime recognized Azad Kashmir?”
He also alleged that senior Congress leaders use the “same terminology” as do Pakistan and separatists. He demanded that a sedition case be registered against the person responsible for the gaffe.
