Vidya Bharati Batra was appointed the full-time general secretary of the RSS schools network
Vidya Bharati in 1990.
Notice to Sonia Gandhi On 30 May 2001, Batra served a legal notice to
Sonia Gandhi, president of the
Indian National Congress. Batra stated that a resolution passed by the
All India Congress Committee at its plenary session included statements that were defamatory towards
Vidya Bharati. According to Batra, the resolution had stated that textbooks used by Vidya Bharati promoted negative attitude and violence towards minorities, justified the caste system,
sati and
child marriage as being a part of Indian culture, and contained superstitions and concocted facts inimical to
scientific temper.
Opposition to sex education On 15 May 2007, acting on the advice of Batra, the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh
Shivraj Singh Chouhan removed
sex education from the state curriculum on the grounds that it offended Indian values. Batra suggested that
yoga be added to the curriculum instead of sex education. This view was criticised by S. Anandhi, a scholar of gender issues, who wrote that sexeducation was aimed at combating
child sexual abuse, and controlling the spread of
HIV/AIDS by encouraging safe sexual practices. She also stated that fundamentalist organisations were attempting to repress sexuality. Later that year, Batra wrote a letter on behalf of the
Shiksha Bachao Andolan Samiti, which stated that parents can possibly book instructors on the charge of "outraging the modesty of a woman or dishonouring a person."
Petition against Ramanujan's essay In 2008, Batra petitioned the Delhi High Court on behalf of
Shiksha Bachao Andolan Samiti, seeking the removal of
A.K. Ramanujan's essay,
Three Hundred Ramayanas: Five Examples and Three Thoughts on Translation, from the Delhi University's history syllabus. The essay discusses the many texts and presentations of the
Ramayana that appear across the globe. In 2011, Batra filed suit against Doniger and Penguin Publishing under
Section 295A of the Indian Penal Code, which punishes acts intended to cause outrage or offend the sentiments of religious communities. In February 2014, pursuant to a settlement agreement, Penguin India withdrew all unsold copies of the book and pulped them, leading to sharp criticism. Later, that year he also sent a legal notice to
N. Ram, the editor of
Frontline magazine, for printing a cover article titled
Shortcut to Hindu Rashtra. On 3 March 2014, Batra sent a legal notice to the Aleph Book Company demanding that another book by Wendy Doniger,
On Hinduism, be withdrawn. In May 2014, academic publisher Orient Blackswan halted the release of a book,
Communalism and Sexual Violence: Ahmedabad since 1969 by Megha Kumar, after it received a legal notice from Batra claiming the book is defamatory and derogatory to the RSS. The publisher in a letter to the author explained that it was assessing the book before the release. The publisher also put another book,
From Plassey to Partition: A History of Modern India by Sekhar Bandyopadhyay, under review after his notice.
Textbook authorship On 30 June 2014, the
Bharatiya Janata Party government of
Gujarat issued a circular, declaring six text books written by Batra to be part of the state education curriculum as supplementary literature. Originally written in
Hindi, the books were translated into
Gujarati, and were released by
Bhupendrasinh Chudasama, the state education minister, who stated that they were compulsory. Batra has indicated that the initiative for using the books came from the
Narendra Modi government in Gujarat, and the books carry a foreword from Modi. The books among other things, asserted that cars were invented in ancient India and urged students to draw the geographic map of an
Akhand Bharat, that includes countries including Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan etc. They received severe criticism from historians as well as the popular press. Historian
Romila Thapar stated that the books contained "not history, but fantasy."
Irfan Habib, another prominent historian, described them as "hilarious but scary".
Appointment to Haryana education committee On 12 November 2014, the newly elected BJP government of
Haryana state announced that Batra would be appointed to a new committee of educationalists. The committee would consist of retired teachers and professors from the state.
NCERT Textbook objections In July 2017, Batra submitted another list of objections against the NCERT textbooks on various subjects. ==Publications==