Mangaluru school fulfils BJP MLAs demand, suspends teacher who told students ‘Ramayan, Mahabharat imaginary’

News Network
February 13, 2024

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Mangaluru: A teacher was suspended from St Gerosa English Higher Primary School in Jeppu here on Monday, February 12, after a few parents and students instigated by Hindutva outfits accused her of hurting the sentiments of Hindus by calling Ramayana an imaginary story and “failing to respect” PM Narendra Modi during a Moral Science lesson.

The agitators, supported by elected representatives of BJP, alleged that a teacher from St Gerosa English HR Primary School in the coastal town taught students that the Mahabharat and the Ramayan were "imaginary".

Sr Anitha, the headmistress, said the teacher in question, Sr Prabha, in her late-40s and who had been teaching at the school for about 10 years, will soon be replaced.

The current incident came to light after an audio clip reportedly made by a parent and addressed to a Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader went viral on Saturday, leading to protests by parents in front of the school.

The parent claimed that a class seven teacher had made derogatory remarks during a Moral Science lesson titled 'Work is Worship', hurting religious sentiments. He claimed that the teacher reportedly made derogatory remarks about the consecration of Ram Lalla idol and the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya and made certain observations about the Godhra incident and the subsequent Gujarat riots of 2002.

“We will abide by the final decision of the inquiry team. Such an unfortunate incident had never happened in this 60-year-old school. It has created a temporary mistrust. We abide by the constitutional values and treat all faith and communities equally,” the headmistress said, as protests continued on Monday. At one point, the public tried to barge into the school compound, but were thwarted by the police.

The decision to suspend the teacher was taken after a meeting between deputy commissioner Mullai Muhilan MP, city police commissioner Anupam Agrawal, DDPI DR Naik and representatives of the school staff and management, following protests by a section of the parents and two MLAs, demanding action against the accused teacher.

The DC said an inquiry into the incident will be completed at the earliest.

Earlier in the day, BJP MLAs D Vedavyas Kamath and Dr Bharath Shetty, VHP leader Sharan Pumpwell, and others met the DDPI and submitted a memorandum, demanding suspension of the teacher.

While the school took its time to announce the suspension of the teacher, many students backed by Hindutva forces, too, joined the protests, even as slogans such as “Jai Shri Ram,” “Bharat Ka Baccha Jai Shree Ram Bolega,” “Bharat Mata ki jai, “Vande Mataram” rent the air.

Though the initial demand was to suspend Sr Prabha, later, irate parents and a section of the students also made allegations against another teacher who had allegedly made derogatory remarks against ‘Koragajja.’

Once the DC and police commissioner arrived at the spot, they tried to pacify the MLAs who claimed they had been waiting for nearly four hours without an appropriate response from the school management.

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News Network
November 18,2024

Advisors to US President-elect Donald Trump have instructed his allies and associates to refrain from using the inflammatory language they previously employed when discussing issues related to migrants and the deportation of asylum seekers, in a bid to avoid “looking like Nazis.”

US media reports said that Trump’s associates had been asked to stop using the word “camps” to describe potential facilities that would be used to accommodate migrants rounded up in deportation operations across the country.

The reports said the US president-elect’s allies had been ordered to stave off such charged terms as they would bring to mind “Nazis,” and be used against Trump.

“I have received some guidance to avoid terms, like ‘camps,’ that can be twisted and used against the president, yes,” one Trump ally told American monthly magazine Rolling Stone.

“Apparently, some people think it makes us look like Nazis.”

The presidential advisers also cautioned surrogates and allies to keep racist terms, which have dogged Trump’s campaign, out of their remarks.

They said with Trump’s heated rhetoric that used to compare undocumented immigrants to “animals” and his slight that they are “poisoning the blood of our country,” detractors did not need to reach too far to find parallels to Nazi Germany.

Stephen Miller, who Trump tapped to be his deputy chief of staff of policy, specifically used the word “camps” to describe holding facilities that he hoped the military could put together for immigrants.

Tom Homan, who served as the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and is chosen by Trump to be in charge of the US borders, was no stranger to such language.

“It’s not gonna be a mass sweep of neighborhoods,” he said in an interview earlier this week. “It’s not gonna be building concentration camps. I’ve read it all. It’s ridiculous.”

Becoming a little more forthright about the new government’s aggressive deportation plans, Homan likened the early days of the Trump administration to the initial invasion of Iraq in 2003.

“I got three words for them – shock and awe,” he said. “You’re going to see us take this country back.”

Trump made immigration a central element of his 2024 presidential campaign but unlike his first run, which was mainly focused on building a border wall, he has shifted his attention to interior enforcement and the removal of undocumented immigrants already in the United States.

People close to the US president and his aides are laying the groundwork for expanding detention facilities to fulfill his mass deportation campaign promise.

The businessman-turned-politician deported more than 1.5 million people during his first term.

The figure do not include the millions of people turned away at the border under a Covid-era policy enacted by Trump and used during most of Biden’s term.

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News Network
November 10,2024

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The media office in the Gaza Strip, where the Israeli regime has been waging a genocidal war since last October, says as many as 188 Palestinian journalists have been killed since the onset of the brutal military onslaught.

The office provided the figure on Saturday, naming four journalists as the most recent victims of the onslaught.

It identified the foursome as Zahraa Mohammad Abu Sukheil, Ahmad Mohammad Abu Sukheil, Mustafa Khadr Bahar, and Abdel Rahman Khadr Bahar.

The office said it “strongly condemns the targeting, killing, and assassination of Palestinian journalists by the Israeli occupation and holds it fully responsible for committing this heinous crime.”

“We call on the international community, international organizations, and those involved in journalistic work worldwide to take action against the occupation, pursue it in international courts for its ongoing crimes, and pressure it to halt the genocide and the targeted killings of Palestinian journalists,” it said.

Earlier in the day, the office said the Israeli regime had bombed the tents sheltering journalists and displaced persons at the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Hospital in the city of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza for the ninth consecutive time.

The atrocity that claimed the lives of two people and injured 26 others came as part of “the genocidal crimes committed by the Israeli occupation army against hospitals, civilians, and displaced persons,” it said.

The media office held the regime and the United States, its biggest ally, as well as other countries aiding the genocide fully responsible for such systematic crimes.

At least 43,552 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed and 102,765 others wounded since the launch of the war that followed a retaliatory operation by Gaza’s resistance groups.

The fatalities include 44 people, who were killed across the coastal sliver, in the most recent phase of the military onslaught.

As many as 24 of the victims were killed in the northern part of the territory, where the regime has markedly intensified its deadly attacks for weeks.

They included an eight-year-old child and a five-year-old one, who lost their lives after Israeli warplanes targeted a group of minors filling up jerry cans with water alongside their mother at the Jabalia Refugee camp.

Gaza’s heath ministry, meanwhile, said a number of victims remained under the rubble and in the streets following Israeli airstrikes, saying ambulances and civil defense teams could not reach them due to the sheer extent of the destruction caused by the raids and obstruction caused by the regime.

Also on Saturday, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report, a United Nations-backed assessment, warned that famine was looming in northern Gaza amid escalated Israeli aggression and the regime’s near-total siege of the targeted areas.

The alert from the Famine Review Committee warned of "an imminent and substantial likelihood of famine occurring, due to the rapidly deteriorating situation in the Gaza Strip."

On October 17, the body projected that the number of people in Gaza facing "catastrophic" food insecurity between November and April 2025 would reach 345,000, or 16 percent of the population.

The IPC report classified that figure as Phase 5 -- a situation when "starvation, death, destitution, and extremely critical acute malnutrition levels are evident."

The Israeli military, however, questioned the report's credibility.

"To date, all assessments by the IPC have proven incorrect and inconsistent with the situation on the ground," the army said in a statement, denouncing "partial, biased data and superficial sources with vested interests."

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News Network
November 11,2024

Udupi, Nov 11: A traveller reportedly lost ₹4.1 lakh after attempting to book a cab online in Udupi. 

At around 1:30 PM on November 7, the man from West Bengal searched for car rentals on Google and selected a website named "Shakti Car Rentals." Shortly after, he was contacted by someone claiming to be "Rohit Sharma," who directed him to pay a registration fee of ₹150 on the site.

After unsuccessful payment attempts via both his Canara Bank debit card and SBI credit card (without receiving an OTP), "Rohit Sharma" instructed him to pay the driver directly. But at 1:47 PM, he received messages showing deductions of ₹3.3 lakh from his SBI credit card and ₹80,056 from his Canara Bank debit card, totaling ₹4.1 lakh.

The complainant alleges fraud through a deceptive link disguised as a booking token fee. A case has been registered at Udupi Town Police Station.

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