BHOPAL: A row has erupted in the Khandwa district of Madhya Pradesh over a private school's General Knowledge exam question paper asking the name of Kareena Kapoor Khan and Saif Ali Khan's son.
Irked over the Class VI exam question paper asking the question about the Bollywood actor couple son's name, the parents' body of school's students has demanded from the state's school education department, strict action against the school.
Taking cognizance of the matter, the Khandwa District Education Officer (DEO) Sanjiv Bhalerao is issuing a show-cause notice to the school -- Academic Heights Public School.
In fact, the Class VI Term End-II exam's General Knowledge paper's Current Affairs section contained five questions. The second question asked the students to write the full name of Kareena Kapoor Khan and Saif Ali Khan's son.
"Everyone knows that the film actor couple's son is named Taimur and this is also a fact that another Taimur (Taimur Lang) had unleashed terror on our country in the past. Still, the couple named their son Taimur. It's extremely unfortunate that students have been asked to write Taimur's name in the exam.
"Instead of asking such a question to students, questions on the lives of our historical icons like Mata Jijs Bai, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and Devi Ahilya Bai should have been asked by the school in its question paper. We demand sternest possible action against the school, by ordering its closure," parents body head Anish Arjhare said.
The parents' body head, however, had no problem with another question of the same Current Affairs section, which asked the students to name the North Korean dictator. According to the Khandwa District Education Officer (DEO) Sanjiv Bhalerao, the matter has come to his knowledge on Thursday, after which a show-cause notice is being issued to the concerned school. Appropriate action will follow.
"The parents' body of the school too has objected to the question and I too individually feel that such a question which hurts sentiments of parents shouldn't have been asked in the question paper," Bhalerao said. He, however, couldn't elaborate how the concerned question was inappropriate.
The Khandwa DEO couldn't also explain how asking the name of the film actor couple's son was inappropriate, but asking to name North Korea's dictator was appropriate.
Khandwa district of MP is a communally sensitive district and also the home town of legendary playback singer and actor Kishore Kumar.