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Parents see BJP connection in Bengal school lotus logo, force authorities to drop it
The parents staged a demonstration in front of the school on the southern outskirts of Kolkata last week, alleging that the school authorities were linked to the BJP.
After facing protest from a section of parents, a government-sponsored primary school in West Bengal’s South 24-Parganas district has decided to remove lotus from its logo embroidered on the uniform.
The parents staged a demonstration in front of the school on the southern outskirts of Kolkata last week, alleging that the school authorities were linked to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
They were using the uniform to promote the BJP’s electoral symbol, which is also the lotus, the parents said.
Founded in 2001, Rania Free Primary School school is for students from Classes 1 to 4. The coeducational school is under the Rajpur-Sonapur municipal area of South 24-Parganas.
“We have been using this logo since 2009 because lotus is our national flower. However, since a section of parents is protesting now, we will change the logo,” the school’s headmistress, Bijoli Das, said on Tuesday.
Das was summoned by the Sonarpur block school inspection authorities and asked to explain the presence of the logo on the uniform.
“According to the rules, using the logo of Sarva Shiksha Mission is a must for the school. Besides, if they wanted to use another logo of their own, that logo must be documented and used in all other documents related to the school,” said an officer involved in the inspection of primary schools within Sonarpur community development block.
“It has been pointed out to them that they logo was being used in violation of the existing rules,” said the officer, who did not want to be identified because the issue took a political turn.
A local leader of the Trinamool Congress (TMC), Ashis Chakraborty, said logo may have been created a decade ago but it was not being used in the uniform until recently.
“We are sure the school authorities hatched a conspiracy with the BJP to promote their electoral symbol,” Chakraborty said.
This incident comes at a time when BJP leaders in Malda district have been alleging that the authorities in a number of schools are removing lotuses painted on the walls.
“As part of education, images of the national flower, animal, bird and fruit are painted on the walls. Recently, when some of the schools are being painted afresh, they are removing lotus and keeping only the images of the peacock, mango, tiger and banyan,” said Gobinda Chandra Mandal, president of BJP’s Malda district unit.
The peacock is India’s national bird, mango national fruit, tiger national animal and the banyan is the national tree.
TMC’s Malda district unit leader Ashis Kundu, who earlier served as the chairperson of District Primary School Council, denied that the government had instructed any school to remove paintings of the lotus from the paintings on the walls.
However, a headmaster of a primary school in Malda town said they have been removing the lotus.
“We have dropped lotus because it’s also a political party’s electoral symbol. School campuses should be free from any kind of political influence,” the headmaster said requesting anonymity.
