The textbooks faced political pressures from the inception. In 1969, a Parliamentary Consultative Committee wanted the textbook on "Ancient India" to state categorically that the "Aryans" were indigenous to India. But the demand was rejected by the Editorial Board as well as Thapar as the author. Further critical reactions came from Hindu and Sikh religious organisations that their respective religions and religious leaders had not been glorified. The Hindu Mahasabha and Arya Samaj claimed that the mention of beef-eating in ancient times went counter to the religious sentiments of the "Hindu nationality." Such controversies continue till today. The controversy centers around the charges of an attempted "saffronised" rewriting of Indian history (i.e., making lessons consonant with the Hindutva). Allegations of historical revisionism with a Hindu nationalist agenda arose several times: under the Janata Party government 1977 to 1980 and again under the Bharatiya Janata Party government from 1998 to 2004 and from 2014 to 2019. In 2012, the organization has been blamed for attempting to insult the government by publishing 'offensive' cartoons in its textbooks. Three months into the Janata Party government headed by Morarji Desai, the Prime Minister was handed an anonymous memorandum by Nanaji Deshmukh, former Jana Sangh leader and general secretary of the Janata Party, which targeted the NCERT textbooks. The books criticised were Thapar's "Medieval India" and Bipan Chandra's "Modern India", along with two other books, "Freedom Struggle" by Tripathi, De and Chandra, and "Communalism and the Writing of Indian History" by Thapar, Mukhia and Chandra. (Only the first two were NCERT textbooks.) The Prime Minister forwarded the memorandum to the Education Minister suggesting that the books be withdrawn from circulation. In August 1977, R. S. Sharma's "Ancient India" was published, which was also targeted. The books were said to be "anti-Indian and anti-national" in content and "prejudicial to the study of history." The main issues seemed to be that they were not sufficiently critical of certain Muslim invaders during the medieval period and that they emphasized the role of leaders like Tilak and Aurobindo in the development of Hindu-Muslim antagonisms. The Hindu nationalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh launched a separate campaign against the books in its magazine "Organiser". The memorandum got leaked and a public debate ensued, which ran till 1979.