Recently, in a case of religious intolerance, a teacher in a private Christian missionary school in Agartala prevented a Hindu student studying in Class 8 from wearing a wristband bearing the symbol of Om. The teacher even confiscated the wristband. After a complaint by the student’s father, Manoj Nath, a faculty member at the state-run Women’s College, the school administration termed the incident unfortunate, as reported by the Indian Express.
According to the report, the school even accepted Nath’s demand of the same teacher to put back the wristband on the student’s hand.
The school administration did the right thing by acknowledging the incident of Hindu hatred on the school premises. But this incident also brings back the issue of respecting the religious faiths of the students in educational institutions, particularly in Christian missionary schools. The purpose of educational schools is to impart proper knowledge through teachers to the students — not to disrespect the religious faith of the students. But when a teacher is involved in promoting religious intolerance, this becomes disturbing for a civilized society.
The missionary schools, known for imparting discipline and spreading education among students, have to ensure that there is also a need for imparting lessons of religious tolerance among the teachers, priests, and nuns employed by them — to prevent such incidents of religious intolerance as had happened in Agartala’s missionary school.
Why Are Muslim Opposition Legislators Seeing AGP As An Alternative?
At a time when prominent Congress leaders are considering the ruling BJP as an appropriate platform, there have been reports that some Muslim legislators of the grand old party and also from the All India United Democratic Front are ready to join the Asom Gana Parishad, a prominent regional party in the state, and also the ally of the saffron party. These speculations got stronger after Congress legislator from Goalpara West, Abdur Rashid Mandal, said that the AGP needs to be strengthened.
After the delimitation exercise, the demography of some assembly constituencies and parliamentary constituencies has changed. Particularly, the Muslim-dominated constituencies have reduced, and this has led many Muslim leaders in the Opposition to rethink their political careers. As these Muslim legislators are opposed to the BJP, mostly because the voters of the constituencies they belong to are strictly against the BJP, these leaders are eager to join the AGP to keep themselves politically relevant in a BJP-dominated state.
With Muslim voters generally averse to voting for it, the BJP has been relying on its ally AGP to pull the Muslim votes into the National Democratic Alliance. This strategy was seen in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections with the AGP fighting in three constituencies where Muslims are either dominant or have a sizeable presence. Again in the 2021 state assembly polls, the AGP, out of the 26 seats it contested as a constituent of the NDA, at least 18 seats were either Muslim-dominated or had a sizeable Muslim populace. It is for this reason that the Muslim legislators from the Opposition — 5 from Congress and 2 from AIUDF, as speculated by reports, are weighing their options to join the AGP.
This week a massive rally was held on Imphal-Saikul road demanding the abrogation of the Suspension of Operations pact with the Kuki militants. The pact will expire by the end of this month. The Meiteis are demanding that the Centre shouldn’t be extending the act after its expiry.
As many as 24 Kuki militant groups under the two umbrella militant organisations — Kuki National Organization and United People's Front — are currently under the SoO pact with the Centre. Last year, the Manipur government withdrew from the pact. The Meiteis are alleging that the Kuki militants bound by the SoO violated the rules and are again back at committing acts of violence against the Meiteis and the security forces, particularly the state police. The Meiteis also allege that central forces like Assam Rifles have been partial towards the Kuki-Zomi militants, as a result of the current SoO pact.
It’s a fact that there has been a rise in militant activities in the Kuki-Zomi-dominated hills in the state — cases of gun battles in December and January between security forces and militants in Moreh, an India-Myanmar border town, and the targeting of the Meiteis living or working adjacent to the Kuki-Zomi dominated hills bear testimony to this fact.
So, the demand of the Meiteis to abrogate the SoO pact with the KNO and UPF needs to be taken seriously by the Centre. It should consider a review — and, if necessary, completely abrogate the SoO pact — by analyzing the ground reality. Any individual or group indulging in militancy or terrorism either directly or indirectly has to be strictly dealt with. This is necessary to bring normalcy to the strife-torn northeastern state.
The author is a political commentator.
[Disclaimer: The opinions, beliefs, and views expressed by the various authors and forum participants on this website are personal and do not reflect the opinions, beliefs, and views of ABP News Network Pvt Ltd.]
Respect For Hindus, Non-Christians Cannot Be Compromised At Missionary Schools
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24.02.2024
Recently, in a case of religious intolerance, a teacher in a private Christian missionary school in Agartala prevented a Hindu student studying in Class 8 from wearing a wristband bearing the symbol of Om. The teacher even confiscated the wristband. After a complaint by the student’s father, Manoj Nath, a faculty member at the state-run Women’s College, the school administration termed the incident unfortunate, as reported by the Indian Express.
According to the report, the school even accepted Nath’s demand of the same teacher to put back the wristband on the student’s hand.
The school administration did the right thing by acknowledging the incident of Hindu hatred on the school premises. But this incident also brings back the issue of respecting the religious faiths of the students in educational institutions, particularly in Christian missionary schools. The purpose of educational schools is to impart proper knowledge through teachers to the students — not to disrespect the religious faith of the students. But when a teacher is involved in promoting religious intolerance, this becomes disturbing for a civilized society.
The missionary schools, known for imparting discipline and spreading education among students, have to ensure that there is also a need for imparting lessons of........
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