In a disturbing video widely circulated on social media on Friday, a female teacher at a private school in Uttar Pradesh’s Muzzafarnagar can be purportedly seen encouraging students in her classroom to slap their classmate, an eight-year-old Muslim boy.
The incident took place in Khubbapur village on Thursday which falls under the jurisdiction limits of Mansurpur police station. The alleged incident took place in the Neha Public School, which is owned by the female teacher seen in the video, Tripta Tyagi, reports The Indian Express.
In the video, Tyagi can be seen instructing kids to hit the Muslim student one by one, apparently because he got his multiplication tables wrong.
Tyagi is heard saying to a man off camera: “Maine toh declare kar diya, jitne bhi Mohammedan bachche hain, inke wahan chale jao (I have declared – all these Muslim children, go to anyone’s area)…” As one child sits down after hitting the boy, Tyagi tells him, “Kya tum maar rahe ho? Zor se maaro na (Why are you hitting him so lightly? Hit him hard).”
She then asks, “Chalo aur kiska number hai (Whose turn is it)?”
As the boy, standing alone, starts crying, Tyagi says, “Abki baar kamar pe maaro… chalo… muh pe na maaro ab muh laal ho raha hai… kamar pe maaro saare (Start hitting him on the waist… His face is turning red, hit him on the waist instead).”
As the alleged incident sparked massive outcry over social media, Satyanarayan Prajapat, Superintendent of Police (City), in a statement said, “Today, Mansurpur police station received a video wherein a woman teacher was ordering students of a class to beat a child for not learning multiplication tables. There were some objectionable comments too.”
“When we investigated, we found that the woman was ‘declaring’ in the video that Mohammedan students get spoiled when their mothers don’t pay attention to their studies. The basic education officer has been informed and departmental action will be taken against the teacher,” Prajapat added.
Meanwhile, Khatauli Circle Officer Dr Ravi Shankar told IE that the administration was the child’s father to file a complaint.
The boy’s father told reporters that he won’t file a complaint, neither will he send his child to the school.
“I will not send my child to that school again and they will return the fee that I have submitted. A settlement has been reached that no complaint would be filed. The teacher has created animosity between the children,” said the boy’s father.
The incident also sparked a political row. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday came out strongly against the incident saying that a holy place like a school is being turned into a “marketplace of hatred”.
“Sowing the poison of discrimination in the minds of innocent children, turning a holy place like a school into a market place of hatred – there is nothing worse a teacher can do for the country,” Gandhi said on microblogging site 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 together teach love,” he added.
Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also expressed her dismay over the viral video, saying “what kind of classroom and society do we want to give to our future generations”.
“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. We have to unite and speak against this hatred – for our country, for progress, for the coming generations,” she said on X.
“Muzaffarnagar school video is a painful warning of how deep-rooted religious divides can trigger violence against the marginalised, minority communities. Our MLAs from Muzaffarnagar will ensure that UP Police file a case suo moto and the child’s education is not disrupted,” Rashtriya Lok Dal leader Jayant Singh posted on X.