Bengaluru: A school in Karnataka’s Dakshina Kannada district, run by an RSS functionary, is courting controversy after a video emerged of its students re-enacting the demolition of the Babri Masjid.
The video shows the students of the Sri Rama Vidyakendra High School at Kalladka village tearing down a poster of the Babri Masjid amid chants of “Bolo Sri Ramachandra ki Jai” as part of a play on its annual day, in which they later erect a Ram Mandir in its place.
The school’s annual day Sunday was attended by Union Minister of Chemicals and Fertilisers D.V. Sadananda Gowda, Puducherry Governor Kiran Bedi and Karnataka ministers H. Nagesh and Shashikala Jolle.
Bedi had even tweeted on the school’s annual day function extolling the student’s enactment of the “proposed Ram mandir” but made no mention of the “demolition”.
This was a school function deep into rural areas of Mangalore, yesterday evening. A rare formation performed by school children depicting sea waves. The name of the school is Shri Rama Vidya Kendra, Kalladka Village. pic.twitter.com/9aG6VHGW9W
— Kiran Bedi (@thekiranbedi) December 16, 2019
Another one the school children made was of the proposed Shri Ram Mandir at #Ayodhya. All such formations enabled the school ensure all of its 3800+ Students participate in the annual festival of the school, Sri Rama Vidya Kendra, Kalladka Village, near Mangalore. @PTI_News @ANI pic.twitter.com/JEZLCdUTfd
— Kiran Bedi (@thekiranbedi) December 16, 2019
The opposition Congress in Karnataka is now demanding action against the school authorities.
Y.B. Srivatsa, national campaign in-charge of the Indian Youth Congress urged police to file an FIR against the school for “inciting communal and religious hatred” and said it was part of the RSS’ agenda to brainwash young minds and teach them to hate.
“It’s sad to see students being encouraged to take part in violence. What sort of education is being imparted?” he asked. “The police must take up suo-moto action against the school authorities. If we continue to normalise such things, we will be on the same path as the Nazis in Germany.”
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Babri demolition as historic as Jallianwallah Bagh: School authorities
Kalladka Prabhakar Bhat, the RSS’ south-central region executive committee member and managing trustee of the school, told The Print that he finds nothing wrong in the play and how it was staged. He felt it was neither “communal” nor inciting violence.
“It (Babri demolition) was a historic event that has been recorded in history. What is wrong is re-enacting it?” asked Bhat.
“Haven’t we re-enacted Jallianwallah Bagh? How can you say that showing what happened on 6 December (1992) is wrong? Children and our future generations should know what happened on that day,” he said.
“I think it was the right thing to do and it was done very well by the children,” added Bhat, one of RSS’s most powerful leaders in the south.
He argued that the Babri Masjid was just a structure for centuries and did not even function as a mosque. “We all know there was a temple there and so we thought we should put this up for all to see and understand what happened, “ he added.
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The ‘demolition’
The video shows a large number of children dressed in white and saffron standing alongside a huge poster of the Babri Masjid as ‘Sri Ram, Jai Ram’ plays in the background. A narrator then speaks in Kannada of how Hanuman bhaktas display anger and on cue, children rush towards the poster.
The narrator then talks of how the ‘bhaktas’ took up whatever they could find and had begun demolishing the structure.
“They do so with excitement and Aavesha (fury in Kannada). Bolo Sri Ramachandra ki Jai, Bharat Mata ki Jai, Jai Sri Hanuman,” the narrator says and the children follow suit. Soon after, the children stomp on the poster and tear it to shreds.
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