“Beaten Up, Stripped, Force To Chant Jai Shree Ram,” Delhi School Muslim Students Allege Harassment (representative image/ Meta AI)
The Muslim students at Sarvodaya Bal Vidyalaya (SBV) school in Nand Nagri, North Delhi have come forward alleging repeated harassment and targeting based on their religion and cast background, reports The Wire.
A complaint was filed by Ashok Agarwal, a Delhi-based lawyer and education activist on behalf of the students.
In the letter dated November 13, he had written to Delhi Chief Minister Atishi Marlena claiming that the Muslim students in the school were repeatedly beaten up and forced to strip their clothes in the school washroom. Apart from that, the students were further forced to chant ‘Jai Shree Ram’ and were even provoked to commit suicide.
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Agarwal’s letter stated that PGT Political Science teacher Mr Adarsh Sharma and PTI teacher Mr. Vikash Kumar were at the forefront while committing this heinous act towards the students.
His letter gave a detailed account of the unnamed students on November 6. The letter was addressed to Delhi’s lieutenant governor, the director of Delhi’s education department, and other officials, besides Marlena. The students were not ready to disclose their identity for fear of their future.
The students alleged that they were repeatedly forced to strip in the school toilets and filmed them naked, further threatening them to make the video viral if anyone dared to speak out.
Moreover, the students alleged that Muslims and Dalits from Class XI and XII were singled out and were asked to sit on the back-benches, and the dominant cast students were seated at the front. Sharma also alleged that their complaints would be of no avail, owing to his clout in the government school teachers’ union. “Neither the school principal nor the Delhi directorate of education can do anything to stop me. No authority can do me any harm,” Sharma allegedly told the students.
Sharma had also asked the students to greet the teachers with “Jai Shree Ram” instead of “Namaste”. After their complaint, a principal from another school came in for a probe but only to shut the case and coerce the students into silence.
The students further noted that Sharma had threatened to fail 11th and 12th-grade students and made derogatory remarks to students from Dalit and marginalized castes and said that they were destined to be wage labourers and “born to serve Pandit”.
Muslim students were repeatedly subjected to remarks like “Why don’t all the mullas leave our country?.” Sharma also frequently invoked Tulsidas’ infamous slogan of “dhol, gawar, shudra, pashu, nari… yeh sab taadna ke adhikari (Drums, illiterate persons, lower castes, animals and women… all deserve a beating)” while teaching in the classroom, reports Wire.
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Agarwal had appealed to the Delhi chief minister to probe all these allegations. “I have brought this issue to your knowledge and the issue was brought to notice of to the previous director of education, Mr R.N. Sharma, but nothing was done and the situation seems to continue,” said Agarwal in the letter.
