Article 17 of the Indian Constitution states that “Untouchability” is abolished and its practice in any form is forbidden. The enforcement of any disability arising out of “Untouchability” shall be an offence punishable in accordance with the law.
It's important to talk about this Article of the Indian Constitution, as the country is seemingly crossing the threshold of religious untouchability. India is getting sucked into an abyss where the new crucible now is classrooms in which young minds are pushed to a dangerous exclusion.
The viral video of Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar teacher Tripta Tyagi ordering the Hindu children of the classroom to slap a seven-year-old Muslim boy just because he did not remember his mathematical tables is the latest example of this religious untouchability.
Tripta Tyagi is the new vehicle of hate in a society that has dwindled socially and psychologically in the last nine years under the rule of the BJP-led NDA government.
Yati Narsinghanand, Sadhvi Pragya, Anurag Thakur, Monu Manesar, Bittu Bajrangi are figures who have normalised and ingrained hate against the minority community in India so far but Tripta Tyagi carries shock and awe, because she belongs to the revered institution of teaching where disseminating this kind of hate in classrooms is unthinkable.
Tyagi, who is now known as the “slap teacher”, has begun a novel phase of classroom terror, which for the parents could be a nightmare, could force them to think what their child would go through if he or she is from a minority community and even for the parents of majority community children this could be a panic alarm.
Tyagi has said that her intention was not to create a communal atmosphere but to discipline the children into doing their homework. Would this explanation be acceptable? And can she be pardoned just because she is a 60-year-old woman? Well, the police booked Tyagi on the complaint of the boy’s family under IPC sections 323 and 504, both non-cognisable offences.
Such offences are bailable and do not lead to immediate arrest and require a warrant. Had Tripta Tyagi belonged to the Muslim community, by now there would have been charges of UAPA against her, perhaps her house would have been bulldozed.
There is no action so far taken against her, the Yogi Adityanath government is quiet, and a social media trend says “I Support Tripta”. This is in sharp contrast to the swift action taken against the professor from Unacademy, Karan Sangwan, who had merely requested the students to vote for educated leaders.
Why have the courts shut their eyes to this kind of religious untouchability? Post the Tripta Tyagi incident, there are many videos of children on social media reciting hate poems against Muslims, going to the extent of labelling them as traitors.
Child rights bodies have not questioned this move, neither has the I&B ministry banned such videos. This surely leaves the kids, schools and parents with an impression that this kind of “hate poetry” by children will end up in rewards and recognition by the ruling dispensation!
It wouldn't be surprising if after some time Tripta Tyagi might be garlanded; what if other teachers will be emboldened to do the same with children from minority communities?
Is this a dangerous beginning to the Kamandal 2.0 where children will be sitting ducks, where they will be intoxicated with poison and malice towards Muslims?
Will these kids now be also taught that there is no place for minorities in the Constitution? The current narrative in India is taking it towards a macabre vista where an entire generation of Indians will be intellectually, socially and politically destroyed.
In 2021 a Muslim boy stepped inside a Hindu temple at Dasna in Ghaziabad and drank water from the premises where a signboard read “Muslims not allowed”; this boy was beaten black and blue ” only because he found his way into a temple driven by thirst! This crime seems small in terms of the scale as compared to the horrific yardstick set by the likes of Tripta Tyagi.
On August 23, India became the first country to land its rover on the south pole of the moon. Children cheered this scientific achievement ” how can the same children become pawns of a vicious abominable hate agenda?
One needs serious soul-searching as to what’s happening in our classrooms before generations of Indians get worn down by the weight of these hate factories.
