Groundxero : 25August, 2023

A video of a teacher allegedly encouraging Hindu students in the classroom to slap their Muslim classmate because he is a Muslim has gone viral on X (formerly Twitter). The barbaric Islamaphobic incident happened in Neha Public School in UP’s Muzaffarnagar. In the video, the teacher Tripta Tyagi, is heard saying, “I have declared jitne bhi Mohammedan bachhe hai…”, as students took turns to slap and beat up a Muslim student of the class. The teacher is heard saying, “Aey kya tum maar rahe ho iske.. jor se maaro naa…chalo aur kiska number hai, (What are you doing? Why are you not beating him harder)”, even as the Muslim student wept uncontrollably.

The father of the Muslim student has decided to not file a complaint against the teacher. Mohammed Zubair, co-founder Altnews — a fact-checker online portal — spoke to the father of the Muslim student. “The teacher apologised in front of the police. The father also gave it in writing to the police that he doesn’t want to lodge a police complaint against the teacher,” Zubair said in a post. “We have come to a middle ground that I will remove my kid from the school and won’t file any police complaint,” the father said. He added “I didn’t want to file a police complaint because I don’t want to be called by the Police or by court every now and then, I don’t want to get into all these…”

After a massive public outrage calling for action against the teacher, the Muzaffarnagar police in a post on X (formerly Twitter) said that an investigation is being conducted into the incident and appropriate action will be taken. The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights has taken cognisance of the incident. Priyank Kanoongo, Chairman NCPCR said, “Instructions are being issued for action, everyone is requested not to share the video of the child, give information about such incidents by email, do not become a part of the crime by revealing the identity of the children.”