Karnataka teacher transferred for allegedly asking two Muslim students to ‘go to Pakistan’
Manjula Devi made the remarks on Thursday to two students of Class 5 studying in a government school in Shivamogga.
A government school teacher in Karnataka has been transferred and an inquiry has been initiated against her after she allegedly asked two Muslim students to “go to Pakistan”, reported the Hindustan Times on Saturday.
Manjula Devi allegedly made the remarks on Thursday to two Class 5 students at a government school in Shivamogga’s Tipu Nagar. She has denied the allegations, according to The Indian Express.
The action against Devi was taken on a complaint filed by Janata Dal (Secular) leader A Nazrullah. He alleged that Devi told the two students that India was not their country and that they should go to Pakistan.
“We were shocked after the children told us about the incident,” Nazrullah said, according to the Hindustan Times. “We filed a complaint with the deputy director of public instruction and the department took action against the teacher.”
Deputy Director of Public Instruction Parameshwarappa CR told The Indian Express that Devi had been transferred on the basis of a preliminary inquiry by the block education officer.
“In the initial probe, the teacher said that she was disciplining the students as they were unruly in class and were not respecting her,” Parameshwarappa said.
Block Education Officer B Nagaraj, who conducted the inquiry, said that other students in the class corroborated with the complaint.
The alleged incident took place two days after a government school teacher in Delhi was booked on charges of hurling communal slurs at a group of Muslim students in her class.
Prior to this, a teacher in a school in Muzaffarnagar had ordered her students to slap their Muslim classmate. In a video of the incident, Tripta Tyagi of the Neha Public School was also seen making communal statements about Muslims.