Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Nov 3: A catholic Christian school in Guna in Madhya Pradesh was forced to concede chanting of “Bharat Mata ki Jai” by the students after the national anthem at the prayer meeting every day after a section of the people recited “Hanuman Chalisa” in the school compound in protest against alleged punishment to a class seven student for the same reason on Thursday.
The incident reportedly occurred at Christ Senior Secondary School where student of class VII Shivansh Jain was allegedly made to sit on the floor of the school for four straight periods as punishment for raising ‘Bharat Mata ki jai’ slogan at the end of school assembly on Wednesday.
The family of the affected student reached the school along with other people and members of social organisations and some local political leaders and raised slogans against the management before squatting to chant “Hanuman Chalisa” in protest.
Following the protest, the school management apologised to the parents, however, the parents stayed adamant on their demand for an FIR to be lodged against the Catholic school management and the teachers who handed out the outrageous punishment.
Shivansh told the media that one Justin Sir heard him raising the slogan ‘Bharat Mata ki jai’ at the end of the assembly, after which Justin asked Shivansh to stand out of the line. “What are you saying? Go to the Father,” Shivansh claimed he was told by Justin.
“After that, my Hindi teacher came and told me to meet the class teacher. When I met the class teacher, she said that I should raise it at home,” alleged Shivansh, adding that he went ahead to attend class. However, in the classroom, Jain claimed he faced some serious humiliation by his class teacher Jasmeena Khatun who later made him to sit on the floor for the next four periods.
Shivansh’s mother told media that her child came back home on Wednesday and locked himself in a room. “He did not eat and started crying. After that, he narrated the entire story, following which I told the entire incident to his father.” His father then told a few people about the incident and decided to meet the school management the next day.
The principal of the school, Father Thomas, however, told the parents that the boy did not raise the slogan for patriotism, “but just for fun.” “A disciplinary committee meeting will be arranged and then the matter will be decided upon,” he said.
But the parents did not take school principal’s response as satisfactory and decided to recite ‘Hanuman Chalisa’ as the mark of protest. Things escalated at the Catholic school when local political leaders, along with some retired district administration officials, joined the protest and alleged that the school is made on ‘illegally acquired’ government land.
After almost three hours into the protest, the school reportedly apologised to the parents and issued a circular declaring that such incidents will not be repeated in future and also agreed that ‘Bharat Mata ki jai’ will be chanted after the national anthem.
