By Yaqoob Murtaza
The recent heinous crime happened in Neha Public School, Muzaffarnagar, UP where a Hindu teacher named Tripta Tyagi asked Hindu students to beat Muslim classmate is horrifying and heart wrenching. Anyone who will watch the video, will feel ashamed. The victim student is just 8 years old kid. The statement made by the teacher Tripta Tyagi is full of hate and poison against Muslim community. Victim is not only a child of Muslim community, rather he is the future of India. When we will not be there, these children will be there and will lead the country. So, in which direction we wish the country should go?
We recently have celebrated the success of Chandrayaan-3. There is no doubt that it is India’s one of the biggest achievements ever. At the time of celebration, we also remembered APJ Abdul Kalam -the missile man of India- for his remarkable contributions to India. He comes from Muslim community and we all know that he refused all the handsome offers made by developed countries and he devoted his whole life for India. Who will be future APJ Abdul Kalam of India we cannot imagine but definitely there will be someone among these children who we are feeding the poison of hate against Muslim community today.
When India got independence in 1947, we were poor because Britishers have left nothing. Even in those difficult situations, we were rich because we were having the sprit of love, brotherhood and communal harmony. We were feeling the pain of each other and that’s why we all were united and our identity was Indian irrespective of class and religion. The same spirit of “fraternity” was reflected in the Constitution of India. Now, in 2023 after seven decades of Independence, we developed a lot in various sectors but we also lost many things. We lost brotherhood, unity and obviously communal harmony. The hate politics of religion has divided us and that severely damaged the peace of society.
We believe that the school shapes the children into a good human being and in this regard, teacher undoubtedly plays a very important role. But if a teacher in a school teaches the lesson of hate against Muslim community and askes kids to slap hard to their fellow Muslim classmate then what will be future of this country? The incident is really painful and disturbing the mature minds then we can imagine what mental trauma the victim child has gone through and how long will it take him to come out from that trauma? This is the clear case of Islamophobia and denial of right to education and access to education guaranteed under Article 21A of Indian Constitution. After watching such horrifying video of a school kid, How the parents will have courage to send their children to a school?
Therefore, we have to speak against hate being spread against Muslim community. Such anti-Islam and anti-Muslim incidents should not take place again and again. We all have to acknowledge that the wrong is wrong and we should neither justify it nor cover it up. We must be honest to speak against the hate in order to secure right to education to these kids and to provide them safe and healthy environment. These children are our future, our pride and off course the future of this country. India will lose great potential if hate has not been addressed seriously.
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Yaqoob Murtaza is a student at IIT Kharagpur.
Very true 💓
Hope common sense prevails
But hate is being spread among the majority community
Muslims must address Hindu’s concerns and compromise on their certain religious requirements as they do in western countries.
Muslims must address young Indian generation as to why they are in India when they got their Pakistan?
Indians don’t believe that Muslims have any contribution towards India’s Independence. Muslims struggled then for Pakistan or for a Muslim rule in India including 1857 revolt. A Muslim can never be a Secular.