Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday came out strongly against a school teacher in Uttar Pradesh who was seen asking her students to slap a boy from a minority community in a viral video. Gandhi said there was nothing worse a teacher could do for the country than sowing the poison of discrimination in the minds of innocent children.
In a video widely circulated on social media, a teacher, identified as Trapti Tyagi, can be seen asking the students of class 2 of a private school in Khubbapur village under Mansurpur police station area in Muzaffarnagar to hit the child. Tyagi encourages the children to hit the crying student harder while declaring that children of a certain faith whose parents do not pay attention to their education should be taught a lesson.
“Sowing the poison of discrimination in the minds of innocent children, turning a holy place like school into a market place of hatred – nothing worse a teacher can do for the country,” Rahul Gandhi said in a post on X in Hindi.
“This is the same kerosene spread by the BJP which has set every corner of India on fire. Children are the future of India - do not hate them, we all have to teach love together.”
Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also expressed her dismay over the viral video and asked “What kind of classroom and society do we want to give to our future generations.”
{{/usCountry}}Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also expressed her dismay over the viral video and asked “What kind of classroom and society do we want to give to our future generations.”
{{/usCountry}}"Where there is talk of technology to go to the moon or things that build a boundary wall of hatred? The choice is clear. Hate is the biggest enemy of progress," she said on X, formerly Twitter.
"We have to unite and speak against this hatred - for our country, for progress, for the coming generations," she added.
The Uttar Pradesh Police said on Friday it has started an inquiry into allegations.
“We have been made aware through social media about a video clip in which a woman teacher asks the students of a class to hit one of their classmates for not remembering [multiplication] tables. There are some objectionable comments too that are being made in the video.
When we... spoke to the school principal, it emerged that the teacher had declared that mothers of Mohammedan children who do not pay attention to their education, those children’s education is ruined. In this connection, action will be taken,” said Satyanarayan Prajapat, the SP of Muzaffarnagar.
The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights also took cognisance of the clip.
“Taking cognizance, instructions are being issued for action, everyone is requested not to share the video of the child... do not become a part of the crime by revealing the identity of the children,” its chairperson Priyank Kanoongo posted on X.