Bhaktisandesam / Is this religious tolerence?

[Guest guest]

Hindu Teacher Ordered to Remove Bindi at Christian School

www.newindpress.com

 

BHOPAL, INDIA, December 21, 2005: (HPI note: Christian schools in

India receive government funding for teacher's salaries and

textbooks. Most of the students are not Christians.)

 

A Christian missionary school here is in the throes of a controversy

after it sacked a Hindu teacher for wearing sandalwood paste on her

forehead. Activists of the radical Hindu organization Bajrang Dal

have taken up the case of the teacher and are up in arms against the

school. Jyoti Sahasrabuddhe, 40, a computer science teacher at Saint

Jones School in the Govindpura area of the city for the last 14

years, went to school on Monday with sandalwood paste smeared on her

forehead. The principal, Suman Martin, allegedly objected to the

paste and asked Sahasrabuddhe to wipe it off but she refused. This

led to a heated argument between the two and the teacher tendered her

resignation.

 

She later filed a complaint at the Govindpura police station against

Martin's behavior. In her complaint Sahasrabuddhe said no teacher at

the school was allowed to wear 'bindi' on her forehead. " Students are

forcibly taught from the Bible in the name of prayers, " she said in

the complaint. Sahasrabuddhe has also accused the school authorities

of carrying out religious conversions. Bajrang Dal activists took up

the matter after learning of the incident. " We have got complaints

against this school earlier too. We were told that the Bible was read

out to the students against their wishes. The students were also

forced to read the Bible in the name of morning prayers, " said

Devendra Rawat, an office-bearer of the Bajranj Dal. " We want that

the teacher should be reinstated and the Bible should not be read out

to the students. If the school management fails to do these two

things, we will take action against them, " Rawat said. Martin could

not be immediately contacted for comments. However, another teacher

at the school said on the condition of anonymity that the school

management had rejected Sahasrabuddhe's resignation and she would be

reinstated. " We are investigating the matter, " a police official at

the Govindpura police station said.

 

 

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Jai Shree Krishna !