The headmistress of a government school in Chhattisgarh was suspended on Saturday because of a question paper she set in which a question allegedly hurt religious sentiments, leading to protests by right-wing groups.
According to officials, she set an English question paper for class 4, in which “Ram” was purportedly one of the multiple choice answers for the question, “What is the name of Mona’s dog?” The question paper came up during the half-yearly exams conducted at the school last week. The headmistress told authorities that she had intended for the word to be “Ramu”, but failed to add the ‘U’.
Soon, the question paper surfaced on social media, and right-wing groups, including Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal, gave a written complaint to the Collector and Superintendent of Police (SP) of Mahasamund district seeking action.
SP Prabhat Kumar said an FIR was registered in the matter last week against unknown persons under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita section 299 (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs). The section is non-bailable.
An inquiry was also initiated by the District Education Officer, Himanshu Bhartiya, in Raipur. A five member committee was formed to investigate the complaint.
In press statement, the education officer said, “Ram is a revered deity of the Hindu religion, and including ‘Ram’ as an option [for the answer] has hurt religious sentiments.”
In the inquiry, it came to fore that the paper was set by the headmistress of a government primary school at Nakti in Tilda Block of Raipur. She was subsequently suspended on Saturday.
This story was originally published in indianexpress.com. Read the full story here.
