CHENNAI: A question paper leaked from the revision exams of a popular CBSE school in Chennai is caught in the eye of a controversy after it compelled its students to take a specific political view pertaining to the Republic Day violence that took place during the farmers' protests in Delhi. It termed the protestors as "miscreants" and "violent maniacs."
The question paper received severe backlash online for allegedly imposing political biases on students.
The English revision exam paper for class 10 students issued by the school asked students to suggest measures to thwart "such violent maniacs from who act under external instigation."
The question paper said that the farm law protestors "went on a rampage destroying public property and attacking police personnel in broad daylight." The question paper said that the event, "filled the hearts of the citizens with condemnation and abhorrence."
Under the Writing section of the question paper, students were asked to write a letter to the editor of a daily newspaper condemning "such terrible, violent acts of miscreants who fail to realise that the country comes before personal needs and gains."
While the management of the school did not respond to queries via personal visits, calls, and messages, a spokesperson on campus said that the management had instructed them on Friday noon, after the paper got leaked, to "not allow any person, who was not a student, into the campus."
Carnatic singer and Chennai-based activist TM Krishna tweeted on Friday that "the incident and the much larger farm bills issue are still being discussed but here it is called 'violent maniacs under external instigation'."
Meanwhile, students, who took the exam said, they were very confused about seeing the question. One of the class 10 students The New Indian Express spoke to said that he did not know how to answer that question. "We had an option to answer another question. So I picked that. Some of my classmates told me that they simply elaborated on the same view expressed in the question because they did not have to think much," he said.
Another student said that he disagreed with the idea proposed in the question paper and wrote an answer opposing it. "However, we have not received our mark sheet. I do not think I will be penalised for opposing the view posed in the question," he said.
Many students wanted to go off the record and stay anonymous as they feared that the school would punish them for speaking on the subject.