Kolkata school teacher booked for ‘forcing’ student to remove tilak

A school teacher in Kolkata, West Bengal, has been suspended and police have registered a case against her for allegedly asking a student to wipe off sandalwood tilak from his forehead.

According to officials, the teacher from Holy Mission English Medium School was suspended by the school authority based on a complaint lodged by the parents of a Class 5 student. A video of the student speaking about the incident went viral on social media a few days ago.

“A teacher of a missionary school regularly harassed the student for putting chandan tilak on forehead. The student was humiliated everyday for this and was told to remove the tilak and wash face. This will not be allowed in Bengal,” Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari had recently said at a public event.

He said that wearing tilak or tulsi beads is part of tradition and cannot be discouraged.

According to the Chief Minister, an FIR has been registered against the teacher for ‘hurting religious sentiments’ and ‘humiliating’ the student. Meanwhile, the school also set up an internal inquiry committee to probe the incident.

Another employee of the Education Department working at the Bikash Bhawan in Salt Lake was also suspended by the government for making an objectionable post about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s foreign trips on social media.

“What she wrote about the PM is not acceptable. Nobody can write such a thing about a PM. This matter will be looked into strictly,” he said.

Soon after coming to power, the BJP government issued a directive for all the State government employees prohibiting them from publicly criticising any policy or action of the government.