In the cartoon, the former Prime Minister of India (Congress), Jawaharlal Nehru, holds a whip and along with Ambedkar is driving a snail, which represents the Indian Constitution.
The book it appeared in was published by NCERT under the guidance of the Ministry of Human Resources in 2006 under the UPA government headed by Sonia Gandhi (Indian National Congress).
[citation needed] The issue created tensions across the country; a number of people raised their voices against the Congress Government, demanding the resignation of the Minister of HRD, Kapil Sibal.
[9] Many political leaders of the country, including Ramadoss (PMK), D.Raja (CPI), Mayawati (BSP), Mulayam Singh Yadav (SP) and Sushma Swaraj (BJP) condemned the ruling UPA coalition.
[15] The Human Resource Minister constituted a committee (headed by Prof. Thorat, former Chairman of the University Grants Commission and belonging to Scheduled Castes) to review the matter, recommended removal of the cartoon among several others.