A fresh controversy has stirred up in the state with LP school students from some schools in the Kasargod district being asked a question about Hindutva founder Vinayak Damodar Savarkar.
Organised as part of the 'Freedom Quiz', an event held by some schools in the Kasargod district, the question was 'Which freedom fighter got the most punishment from the Britishers?', to which the students were expected to write Savarkar's name as the answer.
Following the controversy, General Education Minister N Samsudheen has sought a report on the issue from the Director of General Education Snehil Kumar Singh.
"The questions, prepared by teachers of the Social Science Club, were found to be sent to the schools coming under Kumbala, Manjeshwar and Kasargod education districts from the concerned Assistant Education Officer (AEO) offices.
The controversial question was given in the tie-breaker section of the question paper, which was only needed in Kumbala and Manjeshwar, while schools under the Kasargod education district didn't use it," Kasargod DDE Rafeeq told TNIE. Notably, the questions were not multiple-choice, and the students had to write down the answers.
Meanwhile, officials from the Education Department said that the possibility of using AI to make these questions should also be looked into. "This is not an event organised by the Department, but rather at the school level. Teachers might have used AI to make these questions, which should also be properly dealt with," a senior official said.
Following this, the Left student outfits in Kerala accused the Congerss-led UDF government of "aligning with the Sangh Parivar agenda."
The controversy erupted after Left student outfits alleged that the question portrayed Savarkar, a Hindutva ideologue and one of the accused in the conspiracy surrounding Mahatma Gandhi's assassination, as a freedom fighter.
The Students' Federation of India (SFI), the students' wing of opposition CPI (M), alleged that the UDF government and the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), a key ally in the ruling UDF, were attempting to give the Sangh Parivar a role in the country's freedom struggle.
He alleged that a quiz for students in Kasaragod district had presented the "main conspirator in Gandhi's assassination" as a freedom fighter.
"The League's anti-Sangh Parivar stand was exposed as a fraud through the PM SHRI issue itself. The League is neither anti-Sangh nor does it have any stand. What they have is only business interests and hunger for power," Sanjeev alleged.
(With inputs from PTI)
