NEW DELHI: The controversial reference to the three-language policy in the draft National Education Policy was removed on Monday with the committee, headed by scientist K Kasturirangan, informing the government that there had been an “inadvertent error” in the text submitted for public feedback.With the reference to English as “elitist” and exclusionary triggering political protests in southern states over “imposition” of Hindi , the government clarified the draft was recommendatory and had been revised to say students be given flexibility over choice of language under the three-language model in schools.R Subrahmanyam, secretary in the HRD ministry, said, “The draft is not government policy but recommendations of the NEP committee. The committee said there had been an inadvertent error. The revised draft has now been uploaded for feedback from states and public for a period of 30 days. The Centre does not hold any view on the matter now.”In an interview to TOI, which appeared in the edition dated June 3, Kasturirangan had said, “The (language) policy envisages that every state also learns one language from another state, that is the recommendation as it was the final view of the committee. The committee has been versy sensitive about this particular issue... If there is any misreading of the manuscript, I will look into it and make appropriate corrections.”The earlier draft read, “…the study of three languages by students in Hindi-speaking states would continue to include Hindi and English and one of the modern languages from other parts of India, while the study of languages by students in non-Hindi speaking states would include the regional language, Hindi and English”.The reference to Hindi for non-Hindi speaking states immediately set off protests. This has been revised to, “In keeping with the principle of flexibility, students who wish to change one or more of the three languages they are studying may do so in Grade 6 or Grade 7, so long as they are able to still demonstrate proficiency in three languages (one language at the literature level) in their modular board examinations some time during secondary school.”The choice of available languages would be left to the state boards. Over the past two days, the government fielded external affairs minister S Jaishankar and finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman to clarify that there was no move to alter the three-language formula . Given BJP’s plans for political expansion in south India after gains in Telangana and Karnataka , the government is at pains to distance itself from the row.Speaking to TOI, the HRD secretary said the document was a very progressive one, recommending radical changes in restructuring of undergraduate programmes, bringing all research activities under one platform with Rs 20,000-crore funding, suggesting a new regulatory framework for higher education institutions and bringing pre-primary education under the academic calendar.“It is a very progressive report recommending some radical measures like restructuring of undergraduate programmes by bringing in broad spectrum changes. Another important recommendation the NEP committee made is on the National Research Foundation to bring in all research work under one roof,” Subrahmanyam said.Read this report in Marathi