Now, following the school's complaint, the police are looking for the woman who was heard in the two audio clips claiming anti-Hindu remarks.
St Gerosa School in Mangaluru
It may have started with a teacher explaining a century-old poem to a class in a private school in Mangaluru in Karnataka earlier this month.
However, two audio clips about the teacher going viral on social media and subsequent protests leading to her suspension put the focus squarely on the politicisation of the issue.
Since then, the protesters — two MLAs among them — have been booked, and a top-ranking official in the state’s Department of Education has been transferred, apparently for how the matter was handled.
Now, following a complaint by the school management, the focus has shifted to pinpoint the woman whose voice was heard in the two viral audio clips claiming the teacher made anti-Hindu remarks in class.
It all started earlier this month at the St Gerosa Convent School in Mangaluru, when English teacher Sister Prabha was talking to seventh-standard students about the poem Work is Worship, composed by Rabindranath Tagore in 1910.
Tagore wrote the national anthems of two countries, and was the first non-European to win the Nobel prize. He was awarded the prize in literature for Gitanjali, of which this poem is a part.
However, two audio clips began circulating on social media claiming that sister Prabha had made disparaging comments about Hindu religious practices and political leaders.
On 10 February, four persons — parents of the school’s students — approached Headmistress Sister Anitha with a complaint that Sr Prabha had made some derogatory statements against the Hindu religion and the prime minister while teaching the poem.
The headmistress assured them that she would look into the matter and take appropriate action. However, the matter was far from over.
“On 12 February a subject inspector from the office of the Block Education Officer (BEO) under the state’s Department of Education and a co-ordinator from the Deputy Director of Public Instruction (DDPI) Office visited the school along with other officers,” said Sister Anitha.
“This was followed by the arrival of local MLA Vedavyas Kamath with a group of Hindutva activists who shouted slogans against the school. The management recognised his presence, accorded him due respect and invited him inside the school,” she added.
“However, he refused to come in and continued to protest against the school and management,” said the headmistress.
“It was hurting to see an MLA, who is an elected representative by and for all, gathering children around him and instigating them to shout slogans against their school,” said Sister Anitha.
The BEO and other educational department officials reportedly asked the school management to meet the protesting MLA.
“When I met him, he asked me to immediately dismiss the teacher, failing which he threatened to intensify the protest,” said the headmistress.
“I told him that I could not remove the teacher without an inquiry, as per the education institution’s rules. However, the mob led by the MLA pressured me to remove the teacher with immediate effect,” she added.
“With no other way to go and to maintain law and order and disperse the mob that was swelling, I was forced to issue a statement removing Sr Prabha from the job. Sr Prabha has a total teaching experience of 16 years, including five years at St Gerosa Convent School. There has been no complaint against her so far,” said Sr Anitha.
The allegations against sister Prabha were that she told the students that the Mahabharat and Ramayana were “imaginary” and tried to induce “anti-Hindu” feelings among children.
The concerned teacher completely denied all the allegations and told the management that she was just doing her job.
Headmistress Sister Anitha defended her, saying that Sr Prabha did not hurt Hindu religious feelings, and reasserting that the management was forced by Mangaluru South MLA Vedavyas Kamath to remove her from the job.
Sister Anitha said the teacher explained this while teaching the poem: “Temples, churches, and mosques are only buildings. God dwells in the human hearts. Hence, it is not right to kill human beings in the name of God.”
She added that the teacher told the class: “We need to respect the work and the human beings and see God in them. God doesn’t exist in the structures, but in the human hearts and all of us are temples of God.”
The poem — in Bengali with a rough English translation — can be found at No 11 on the list of a version of Gitanjali currently hosted on a Union government server.
The headmistress asserted that the teacher said she had not spoken anything against any god, but explained to the students the meaning of the poem. “She said she did not hurt Hindu religious sentiments,” said Sister Anitha.
It emerged on Thursday that the Karnataka government had transferred the Dakshina Kannada district’s DDPI D Ramachandra Naik apparently because of the controversy over the removal of Sister Prabha.
Meanwhile, senior Congress leader and Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) vice-president Ivan D’Souza said on Wednesday that his party had decided to submit a memorandum to the chief minister and Assembly Speaker demanding disciplinary action against Vedavyas Kamath and Mangaluru North MLA Y Bharat Shetty — who was also at the protest — for making statements to induce communal hatred among the people over the school issue.
D’Souza alleged that instead of trying to find an amicable solution to the issue at the private school, the MLAs indulged in whipping up communal feelings.
He said a demand would be placed before the Assembly Speaker to disqualify the BJP legislators from the House.
Meanwhile, the diocese of Mangaluru said in a statement issued late on Wednesday night that it had requested the Departments of Minority Welfare, Child Welfare and the Women’s Commission to hold a fair inquiry into the incidents.
The diocese urged the authorities to probe the false allegations against the English teacher and safeguard her dignity as a teacher and a woman.
It said in the statement that it also requested all concerned to protect the interests of minorities, women, and children.
The management of the St Gerosa Convent School filed a complaint with Mangaluru city’s Cybercrime Economic & Narcotics (CEN) Police Station requesting the cops to identify the person involved in the two audio clips that were circulated on social media.
This was after the school management ascertained the facts with their seventh-standard students and learnt that the person heard speaking on those audio clips was not any of their parents but a BJP activist.
“She was neither a parent of any student at the school nor was she a relative of anyone studying at St Gerosa Convent School,” former MLC Ivan D’Souza, who also works for the upliftment of religious minorities, told South First.
Headmistress Sister Anitha said it appeared that the incident and the protest were stage-managed to tarnish the image of the school.
She said: “The critical point of the whole episode, which needs to be looked into, is whether the woman who spoke about the school in the viral audio clips was actually a parent of a student of the school.”
She added: “If not, what was her agenda behind levelling such allegations? If she was a parent, why did she not give a written complaint to the school management about the issue?”
Meanwhile, the school management has also approached the district administration stating that the audio messages were far from the truth and seeking an inquiry into the matter. It has also sought protection from any such untoward incident.
Meanwhile, an FIR was registered on Wednesday by the Mangaluru South Police Station against five people — including the two BJP MLAs — for allegedly inciting people and forcing students of the St Gerosa School to chant “Jai Shri Ram” slogans.
The complaint was filed by the parent of a student from the school, Anil Gerald Lobo, soon after the lawmakers not only instigated a mob they had brought along but also forced the students to protest against the school.
Mangaluru City Commissioner of Police (CP) Anupam Agrawal told South First that an FIR had been registered against the accused and the cops would initially collect documentary evidence and then record statements.
The FIR named Vedavyas Kamath as the first accused, Y Bharat Shetty as the second accused, city corporators Sandeep Garodi and Bharat Kumar, and Bajrang Dal leader Sharan Pumpwell as the remaining accused parties.
The MLAs and their supporters were accused of instigating enmity between the Christian and Hindu communities by directing their slogans against Christianity during the protest on 12 February.
The accused have been booked under Sections 143 (unlawful assembly), 153A (promote disharmony or feelings of hatred between different religious, racial, language, or regional groups, or engage in acts prejudicial to maintaining harmony), 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs), 505(2) (statements conducing public mischief), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 149 (unlawful assembly in prosecution of the common objective) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
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