LUCKNOW: The headmaster of a government primary school in Mathura has been suspended after a local BJP leader lodged a complaint accusing him of allegedly forcing students to offer namaz and discouraging them from singing the national anthem.
Headmaster Jaan Mohammad, 52, who has been posted at the primary school in Naujheel since 2007, refuted the allegations saying that he had been working there for so many years and no one had ever made such allegations against him.
However, Basic Shiksha Adhikari (BSA) of Mathura, Ratan Kirti, who took the action against the headmaster, said that a two-member committee was constituted to inquire into the matter.
In fact, two serious allegations were made against the headmaster. Firstly, he brainwashed children studying in the school describing Islam as a better religious option than Hinduism. Secondly, he forcibly makes them offer Namaz (Islamic prayer) in school and does not get the national anthem recited.
Within 24 hours of the complaint by BJP's Bajna Mandal President Durgesh Pradhan through a letter to BSA Ratan Kirti on January 30, Jaan Mohammad was suspended.
The complainant also alleged that on the school campus, in the presence of the headmaster, people from Tablighi Jamaat were called from outside, and they pressured children to adopt Islam.
Durgesh, a former village Pradhan, claimed that he was informed about the activities of the headmaster by the villagers repeatedly, following which he sent a letter to the Block Education Officer.
“I neither have any personal enmity with the headmaster, nor have I ever met him,” Durgesh said, adding that he sent the complaint to the Block Education Officer solely based on complaints received from residents. “I only raised the issue in the interest of the children and the school,” he added.
The Block Education Officer, in turn, sent the letter to the BSA and the headmaster was suspended on January 31 without any verification or inquiry being carried out.
The school is affiliated with Primary School Nagla Humayun, Mant.
In the meantime, the BSA formed a team of BEO Chhata and BEO Mant for a detailed investigation. This team will submit its report after the investigation. The school has a total strength of 235 children.
Of those, 89 are Muslim, and the rest are Hindu. There are eight persons deployed as school staff, seven of whom are Hindu.