Delhi’s free school textbooks have become the focus of a political dispute after the Aam Aadmi Party alleged that books supplied to government-school students were printed on inferior paper and did not meet tender specifications. The Delhi BJP rejected the charge as baseless, while Education Minister Ashish Sood’s office said it would respond with evidence at a news conference on Saturday.
The allegations were made on Friday at an AAP news conference, where a party functionary displayed two Class VIII Hindi textbooks and compared a government-printed copy with a copy bought from the open market. The AAP alleged that the market copy had better paper and printing quality, while the government-supplied book was smaller, used grey paper and had text that was difficult to read.
According to the allegations reported by the Times of India, the tender for the Class VIII NCERT textbook Malhar specified 80 GSM paper, white A4 sheets and particular printing requirements. The AAP functionary claimed that the supplied books instead used 60 GSM grey paper and extremely small print. The party also alleged that the quality differences amounted to a financial irregularity and claimed that the BJP government had taken a 40% commission.
The report does not establish whether the textbooks violated the tender conditions or whether any commission was paid. Those claims remain part of the political allegations made by the AAP. The minister’s office has said it will address the questions with evidence, creating a pending official response on the paper quality, printing specifications and procurement process.
The AAP also compared the government textbook with a book available in the market for Rs 65, saying that the retail price included commissions paid through shopkeepers and distributors. The comparison was presented as evidence that books with better paper and larger print were available at a similar price, although the report does not provide an independent technical assessment of the two books or details of the full procurement cost.
Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor dismissed the allegations and accused the AAP of raising the issue to divert attention from its own political difficulties in Punjab ahead of the state elections. Kapoor said textbooks had been supplied regularly for the past two years under the current government, contrasting this with what he described as delays during the previous 11-year AAP government in Delhi.
Kapoor also questioned whether the AAP functionary was qualified to assess the quality of textbook paper. The BJP’s response did not, according to the report, provide technical details on the GSM rating, paper colour, print size or compliance of the supplied books with the tender conditions.
The dispute places the focus on the administrative checks behind a basic public-school service: whether tender specifications are reflected in the final product delivered to students. The education department’s announced response is expected to clarify the procurement documents, the paper and printing standards used, and whether any inspection or quality-control process was conducted before distribution.
