‘Marks Jihad’: Kerala minister seeks action against DU teacher
Kerala education minister V Sivankutty told reporters that the teacher’s statement is part of a deliberate move to prevent students from Kerala in getting admission in Delhi University and browbeat them. He said it was never expected from a teacher and sought strict action against him.
Kerala education minister V Sivankutty on Friday sought action against Delhi University Professor Rakesh Kumar Pandey who made a controversial post on “marks jihad”, saying the university’s silence over the issue is condemnable.
Sivankutty told reporters that the teacher’s statement is part of a deliberate move to prevent students from Kerala in getting admission in Delhi University and browbeat them. He said it was never expected from a teacher and sought strict action against him.
“We want action against the teacher for making such an irresponsible and highly communal statement. He can’t simply get away by making such a baseless statement,” the minister said, adding that the teacher later justified it in interviews with various news channels.
Activists of the CPI(M)-backed Students Federation of India (SFI) took out protest rallies in many parts of the state on Friday.
In a Facebook post, Pandey, a physics teacher of Kirorimal College in Delhi, wrote: “A college had to admit 26 students in a course having 20 seats only because they all had 100 per cent marks from the Kerala education board. For last few years Kerala board is implementing #marksjihad#.”
Later he justified it saying he was only mentioning about the “improper paper evaluation system” in Kerala and has no plan to withdraw it or apologise. What angered the Left leaders is his justification that he did not differentiate between leftists and jihadis.
“What do you mean by ‘love jihad?’ It means you start misusing love for spreading religion. This ‘marksjihad’ is when you misuse marks to spread leftist ideology. For me, leftists and jihadis are same. I don’t differentiate between them. Jihad has wider meaning, not just religion alone, which fits into this slot,” he told a Malayalam news channel justifying his position. Pandey is a member of the RSS-affiliated teachers’ body, National Democratic Teachers’ Front.
Many academics, writers and leaders have decried his statement. In a series of tweets, Congress leader and writer Shashi Tharoor said the use of “jihad” as a synonym for any trend one doesn’t like “is exceeding all limits.” “Now a DU teacher has got attention by absurdly decrying ‘marksjihad.’ It is ridiculous. Kerala students scoring 100% have struggled against all odds to get to DU,” he tweeted.
“It is part of the Sangh Parivar agenda. A well-planned strategy is on change the secular and democratic fabric of the country. It is sad, no action is taken against the teacher,” said CPI(M) Politburo member M A Baby, also former state education minister.
