Muzaffarnagar: On Thursday, a seven-year-old Muslim child is slapped in class by other Hindu children on the instructions of their Hindu teacher. Forty-eight hours later, he sits still on a jute cot, his blue school bag placed next to him. He is bewildered and repeats the painful details of the humiliation a hundred times to TV news cameras, selfie seekers, politicians, and villagers.
“Madam asked [other children in the class] to slap the Mohammedan kid. They slapped me for an hour,” he told the camera persons assembled outside his house.
The child who couldn’t memorise the multiplication table of five has been forced to repeat the assault he faced in class so many times that he now looks numb. He turns into his mother’s arms and hides his face in her white dupatta when the visitors overwhelm him with questions.
The assault on this Muslim child in Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar district has taken the internet by storm. Politicians from western UP have descended in the tiny Khubbapur village to meet him with fruits, biscuits and advice. They are counselling him and his parents, and talk about samjhauta (compromise).
The sole mission of the politicians visiting the child is to reduce his humiliation and beating to a fight among school children and absolve the Hindu teacher, Tripta Tyagi, who sat on a chair instructing the class to hit the visibly shaken Muslim kid one by one, reprimanding those whose slaps landed soft on the boy’s cheeks. New visuals of the child hugging another boy have been released on social media to take the attention away from the classrom assault.
From BJP MP Sanjeev Balyan to farm leader Naresh Tikait to several Congress and Samajwadi Party leaders, the list of politicians visiting Khubbapur village is long. AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi and RLD president Jayant Chaudhary have assured the family of justice and help. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi too has tweeted about it.
“This shouldn’t become a Hindu-Muslim thing,” the child’s father said.
Manoj Pal, Pradhan Pati of Khubbapur village, played the crucial role in bringing the families on same page. “Our village remained peaceful even during the 2013 riots. This shouldn’t become another such case,” he said.
Back in the kid’s house, activists try to call out the teacher’s active culpability, feed him chocolates, hug him and give TV bytes. From village heads to local politicians, everybody is trying to prevent a Hindu-Muslim conflict in Muzaffarnagar, a district that still remains precarious ten years after a rumour sparked a riot that killed 62 people and left 50,0000 more homeless.
Tikait has said that the victim’s family will not pursue the case legally and settle it socially, claiming that there is no pressure. But the child and his parents changing their statements suggests a different story about pressure being exerted on them.
The assault and its aftermath
The Muslim child was enrolled in Neha Public School, run by Tyagi, two years ago. With Rs 300 as monthly fee and an additional Rs 300 for home tuition, his parents have been trying to provide their son with education that all his neighbourhood friends receive.
“We have spent Rs 5,000 yearly on his school uniform and other stuff. We are only trying to ensure he gets some education,” the mother said. The family’s eldest son, aged 18, dropped out of school after Class 10 and works at a mobile shop with his father. The 16-year-old son and the 7-year-old study in Class 11 and UKG.
A week ago, the youngest returned home from school with a slap mark on his face, according to his mother.
“He told me some kids slapped him. Then he started making excuses to avoid going to school. We didn’t quite understand until we saw the horrifying video,” she said.
The video shows the child standing next to Tyagi. His classmates walk up to him one by one and slap him as he wails and cries. The teacher is seen asking one child why he was not slapping the boy hard enough.
“His face is turning red, hit him on the waist now,” she instructs the rest of the class.
For some, the video poses a threat in Muzaffarnagar, which has fought a hard battle for peace after the murderous violence in 2013.
“How would anyone feel after seeing their child being slapped by his classmates? This can kill a child’s spirit,” the mother said, unable to describe the “pain” she felt on seeing the video for the first time.
For the 7-year-old, a quiet child who mostly spends his time alone, the sudden media exposure is overwhelming. “My real friends didn’t slap me; only those who were not my friends slapped me,” he said.
An apology and an action
Tripta Tyagi, who holds MA and BEd degrees, has been teaching in the village for the past two decades. After the incident, she allegedly threatened the boy’s family, saying she won’t apologise.
“She returned the fees and asked us to take our child somewhere else as she would not change the way she runs the school,” said the mother, who, along with her husband, had confronted Tyagi a day before the police took note of the incident.
Villagers expressed shock, saying they have known Tyagi to be a “good teacher”. “Her only fault is that she got the child slapped by other children,” said Pradhan Pati.
Tyagi has since apologised to the media, while claiming she has physical disabilities and that’s why she couldn’t get up to hit the child herself and asked other kids to beat him.
When the news broke, Muzaffarnagar police issued a video statement saying that the objectionable remark Tyagi could be heard making about “Mohammadan kids” in the video was being investigated. The police now caim Tyagi’s remark wasn’t religiously motivated.
They have registered an FIR under IPC Sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 506 (criminal intimidation). There’s also a non-cognizable report, which will be investigated only after the court grants its permission.
Priyank Kanoongo, the head of National Commission For Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), tweeted that the organisation has taken cognisance of the matter and warned citizens against sharing the video. Social media site X (formerly Twitter) has already taken down the video.
Demands for an action
On the morning of 26 August, members of the district child welfare committee visited the village to counsel the boy.
In Khubbapur village, which has around 1,800 voters in Shahpur block of Muzaffarnagar, the demand to take action against the person who shot the video has also surfaced.
“The video has been edited and manipulated,” alleged Tyagi’s son. “Tikait and Balyan strictly asked my mother not to give any statement to the media. We will not indulge with the media further,” he said.
An elder cousin of the child has refuted claims that the video has been manipulated. He clarified that the teacher was talking about the impact on the education of “Mohammadan kids” when their mothers leave to spend time at their parents’ home.
The victim boy’s mother found it religiously coloured and debunked the claim. “I have one buffalo and four bighas of land to cultivate. Why would I spend months away from home?” she asked.
Niddhu Pal, 40, whose daughter studied in Tyagi’s school, blamed the Muslim family, accusing them of using the video to threaten and extort money.
“We are unanimously behind her (Tyagi) as she has been a good teacher. She is not at fault. She is right one hundred percent,” he shouted on camera.
Meanwhile, TV media has been enacting its role in the TRP theatre, with reporters using the kid and his family to build a Peepli level of opportunity for themselves. They force the boy and another Hindu child from the village to hug each other. Reporters then turn to their cameras and declare that peace has broken out and children have patched things up.
Except, the child hugging the victim boy is his neighbourhood friend, who didn’t slap him on his face, but only slightly hit him on the waist to fulfil their teacher’s order.
(Edited by Prashant)