Accusing Mangaluru city MLAs D. Vedavyasa Kamath and Y. Bharath Shetty of using the St. Gerosa English Higher Primary School incident to create division among communities, Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) State president Muneer Katipalla on Wednesday asked Speaker U.T. Khader to take disciplinary action against the two elected representatives.
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Speaking to reporters after meeting the representatives of the management of the school at Jeppu in Mangaluru, Mr. Katipalla said the two MLAs should have mediated and helped the Education Department and the government-aided private school address the issue relating to a teacher allegedly making a derogatory remarks against Lord Ram and the Hindu religion, in right earnest.
“Instead, Dr. Shetty and Mr. Kamath behaved like Sangh Parivar leaders, spoke ill about the school, and maligned its reputation. They tried to create discord among the communities to gain political advantage for the impending Lok Sabha elections. Mr. Kamath joined students in front of the school on Monday, raised religious slogans, and displayed saffron shawls. This is unbecoming of elected representatives of learned voters of Mangaluru city,” he said. Like-minded organisations would write to Mr. Khader to take disciplinary action against the two MLAs.
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Criminal action should be taken against the two MLAs for their attempt to create communal tension in the city, he added.
Mr. Katipalla said so far there is no proof that the teacher, Sister Prabha, made derogatory references to Lord Ram in the classroom while teaching Class VII students the poem ‘Work is worship’ of Rabindranath Tagore in the English period. The school management has claimed the teacher taught the lesson in English and she neither made any derogatory reference to Lord Ram nor spoke about the prevailing political situation.
The government, he said, should set up a fact-finding committee to not just look into the alleged derogatory references by the teacher but also throw light on the attempts by the two MLAs and Vishwa Hindu Parishad outfits to vitiate the peaceful situation in the region. Action should be taken against Deputy Director of Public Instruction D.R. Nayak, who acted under instructions of Mr. Kamath and forced the school to order suspension of Sr. Prabha, he said.
Mr. Katipalla was accompanied by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Sunil Kumar Bajal, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee vice-president P.V. Mohan, advocates Dinesh Hegde Ullepady and Yashwanth Maroli, the former Mayor K. Ashraf, and social activist M.G. Hegde.