NCPCR Chairperson Priyank Kanoongo and the symbol of the school Ganga Jamna, Damoh, Image: Twitter
The controversy around the Ganga Jamna School in the Damoh district of Madhya Pradesh is rising every day. From forcing Hindu girls to wear Hijab and punishing students for not offering Namaz, to having prayers like ‘Lab Pe Aai Hai Dua..’ the school opened rows of controversy like a pandora box.
Most recently, the chairperson of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), Priyank Kanoongo shared pictures of the logo of the school and other enterprises owned by the chairperson of the school. These pictures are controversial because, the symbol shows a distorted map of the country, where the northern part is missing.
Notably, amid rising controversy an FIR has been registered against the school administration under sections 295 (destructing place of worship) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC with sections of the Juvenile Justice Act.
While sharing the pictures Kanoongo wrote, “In Damoh, Madhya Pradesh, the investigation is going on in the case of Hindu children wearing hijab and Islamic education and trying to convert, this is its logo, in which half of India has disappeared by tampering with the map of India. Has been done. Not only this, the same map is being used as a logo in all other business organizations of its owner. This type of tampering with the map of our sovereign nation India by the educational institution will not be tolerated at all. @NCPCR_ has taken it very seriously, and necessary instructions are being sent to the Madhya Pradesh government for FIR.”
Talking about the controversy with Organiser, Kanoongo said, they received a complaint about the school during a bench which was set up in the district to listen to the children and their grievances. The students claimed that they were forced to follow Islamic religious practices and wear Hijab at school. Soon after receiving the complaint, they issued a notice to the District Magistrate who discarded the allegations saying, no such angle was tracked.
However, Organiser found videos and pictures from the school premises where minor girls were seen wearing hijabs even during sports activities. The videos of girls in the Hijab reciting ‘Lab Pe Aai Hai Dua’ were also recovered.
It is pertinent to mention that following the NCPCR’s notice, the Chief Minister also took cognizance of the matter and the Madhya Pradesh Board of Secondary Education suspended the registration of the school.
Talking about the suspension, Kanoongo said, “The board has only suspended the registration of the school and has not cancelled permanently. The basis of this cancellation is the compromised infrastructure and not the practices followed and forced by the administration. As soon as the administration of the school will meet the specified guidelines pertaining to the infrastructure, they will get the registration back, the commission is committed to making sure this does not happen,” he added.
He further said, the school as the name suggests and the parents claimed is an English medium private school, however, the first language of the school is Urdu. Notably, Madhya Pradesh is a state with Hindi as the state language but this school is forcing students to choose Urdu as their language.
Read another report in this case by Organiser here
Kanoongo alleged that the district education officer (DEO) is clearly involved with the school authorities. Notably, the DEO gave a clean chit to the school when asked to investigate the matter. Following his one-sided decision a raged mob poured ink on him, as a symbol of protest. Following the rising protest, the DEO was suspended from his post.
There are statements of the students from the school who claimed that they were forced to offer Namaz on Fridays, they were forced to offer Iqbal’s controversial poems and were asked to wear Hijab. Talking about their statements Kanoongo said, forcing minors to practice a religion other than theirs is a breach of Article 28(3) of the constitution.
He added, this is not the first case where Hindu children were forced to practice Islamic religious practices, before this students were illegally admitted to a Madarsa in the Vidisha district of Madhya Pradesh. In that matter also no action was taken by the state education department, so only suspensions will not work and that thorough investigation is expected.
In Vidisha, 45 students from the Gond tribe were enrolled at the Madrasa in the city after the govt teacher did not allow them to enter the class. A local activist highlighted the matter after which @NCPCR_ took immediate action. To date no strict action has been taken against the perpetrators in the matter.
He added in the matter of the distorted map of the country Kanoongo said that his office is issuing notice to book the culprits under the charges of sedition. About the funding he said, the main business of the director Haji Idris is of transporting Bidi and pulses to middle eastern countries. Also, the NCPCR has issued a notice to the education department of the state regarding the illegal stocking of Bidi at the government school premises.
Talking with Organiser about the FIR registered in the matter, Kanoongo said, the police department registered an FIR with nominal charges and they have simply ignored the conversion, forced Isalmic practices and the distorted map of the country. The NCPCR will issue a notice in the matter to add the further charges, he said.
Moreover, the matter is getting bigger day by day. Organiser reported details of how two Hindus and a Jain teacher were converted to Islam post-appointment. However, these teachers rushed to the district police claiming that the commission was misleading the people and they have converted as per their won will.
Another woman who used Shrivastava as her surname became, a Muslim upon marrying Sheikh Iqbal. Another woman became Muslim upon marrying Toseef Khan. Their names as listed in the teacher’s sheet showed, one of them belong to the Jain community and had become a Muslim after marrying Sabir Ali.
Notably, the school, Ganga–Jamna Higher Secondary School is an English medium private institution located in ward number–4 of the Futera area in Damoh district. The posters in circulation had names of meritorious students of the school, both girls and boys. Out of 18 mentioned students, three were boys and the rest were girls. Out of 15 girls, four were from Hindu and Jain communities. Shockingly, all these girls were seen wearing Hijab (a scarf covering their hair).
The controversy has drawn attention from everywhere Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Home Minister Dr Narottam Mishra, the state Bharatiya Janata Party head VD Sharma, Sadhvi Pragya Thakur and many dignitaries.
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