Jump to content

(mock) Puja in class: Jaipur boys suspended


Desi Cartman

Recommended Posts

JAIPUR: St Xavier’s School authorities here on Wednesday suspended seven Class XII students for 20 days for allegedly offering puja to Lord Ganesha in their classroom on the occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi. The report about students’ suspension spread like wildfire, providing Saffron parties an opportunity to take on the missionary school management, which ultimately assumed a communal colour. After receiving frantic calls from parents about the suspensions, more than 200 members of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) — the youth wing of BJP — reached the school and started throwing stones at the school and broke some windows. Police later detained six BJYM supporters. St Xavier’s is one of the oldest schools in Jaipur. It was set up in 1941, and has produced some of the brightest students in all of Rajasthan. “We kept on pleading with the school Father that he needed to take mild action as the students hadn’t done anything unethical,” said Shankar Agarwal, father of Tanmay, one of the suspended students. He said that he reached school after receiving a call from the authorities who told him that St Xavier’s “was a school, and not a temple”. He said that a few students had put up a poster of Lord Ganesha in the classroom and offered puja. “We requested that students shouldn’t be punished so severely. But when the authorities did not budge, we were forced to call political parties,” he said. Principal Fr Jose Jacob, however, said he suspended seven students of class XII-B of the commerce section for breaching school discipline. He said during recess about seven students of the class were caught enacting a “mock puja of Ganesha with a poster pasted on the black board”. He said what was going on was some kind of mockery as the whole class was laughing loudly. He said he went to the class after hearing the noise. After that, the seven students were sent back to their homes and their parents were informed. Around 6.30 pm, some Yuva Morcha activists barged into the campus and began to break windowpanes and chucked some flower pots on the campus. They shouted slogans against the principal of the school and went away once the police reached the spot. Fr Jacob said, “We respect all religions. However, we cannot tolerate indiscipline. First of all, a classroom is not the place for pujas and, above all, these students were performing a mock puja”. He said it is very unfortunate that the disciplinary action initiated against these students have taken communal overtones. BJYM city president, Nidhi Shekhar, however, said the district administration should arrest the school principal for restraining someone from performing puja. link .......................................................................................................... I agree with the principal

Link to comment
Share on other sites

this one is difficult... while i think they deserve punishment for practicing religion and hypocricy in a place of education and scientific inquiry, they have been punished in violation of their civil liberties that permit them to practice a religion of their choosing. a puja, while pointless and quite a pain in the behind, is a rather harmless event, unless you end up suffering serious smoke inhalation, it is nonetheless, not a ritual for a classroom since a school, private or public should not be permitted to promote religion, unless it is labeled as a center of religious education... which is why i vehemently oppose madrassas being recognized as equivalent institutes of education; but the punishment these kids had been handed is inspired by the fact that they performed an intrinsically hindu ritual at a christian missionary school. so yeah, damned if i do defend the lads, damned if i dont. this is difficult to call. but i would currently lean towards the agenda of the saffron brigade... these boys have the right to practice a religion of their choosing; albeit not at the cost of their education. furthermore, their punishment culminates into a form of religious discrimination, which one would expect form a christian missionary school. the more i think about this, the more i am perplexed. this is really messed up... i cant call this at all. p.s. i so love my school for not presenting such conundrums! go VVS!!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

JAIPUR: St Xavier’s School authorities here on Wednesday suspended seven Class XII students for 20 days for allegedly offering puja to Lord Ganesha in their classroom on the occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi. The report about students’ suspension spread like wildfire, providing Saffron parties an opportunity to take on the missionary school management, which ultimately assumed a communal colour. After receiving frantic calls from parents about the suspensions, more than 200 members of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) — the youth wing of BJP — reached the school and started throwing stones at the school and broke some windows. Police later detained six BJYM supporters. St Xavier’s is one of the oldest schools in Jaipur. It was set up in 1941, and has produced some of the brightest students in all of Rajasthan. “We kept on pleading with the school Father that he needed to take mild action as the students hadn’t done anything unethical,†said Shankar Agarwal, father of Tanmay, one of the suspended students. He said that he reached school after receiving a call from the authorities who told him that St Xavier’s “was a school, and not a templeâ€. He said that a few students had put up a poster of Lord Ganesha in the classroom and offered puja. “We requested that students shouldn’t be punished so severely. But when the authorities did not budge, we were forced to call political parties,†he said. Principal Fr Jose Jacob, however, said he suspended seven students of class XII-B of the commerce section for breaching school discipline. He said during recess about seven students of the class were caught enacting a “mock puja of Ganesha with a poster pasted on the black boardâ€. He said what was going on was some kind of mockery as the whole class was laughing loudly. He said he went to the class after hearing the noise. After that, the seven students were sent back to their homes and their parents were informed. Around 6.30 pm, some Yuva Morcha activists barged into the campus and began to break windowpanes and chucked some flower pots on the campus. They shouted slogans against the principal of the school and went away once the police reached the spot. Fr Jacob said, “We respect all religions. However, we cannot tolerate indiscipline. First of all, a classroom is not the place for pujas and, above all, these students were performing a mock pujaâ€. He said it is very unfortunate that the disciplinary action initiated against these students have taken communal overtones. BJYM city president, Nidhi Shekhar, however, said the district administration should arrest the school principal for restraining someone from performing puja. link .......................................................................................................... I agree with the principal
never mind... when i stated previously that i am leaning on the side of the saffron brigade... if this is their conduct, then frack them. it is them who should be arrested for destruction of private property, tresspassing, breaking and entering... frack through the entire proverbial book at these cnts... i do hate these so called hindus... i really do!
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Forget the Principal' date=' even the right wing Sadhus will kick the students. APparently they were doing some mocking and having a good laugh. What is here to defend? That too kids of age 17 or thereabouts.[/quote'] so i guess you are calling it on the side of the principle? is this punishment not too outrageous nonetheless? freedom of religion permits you to practice a religion of your choice and also criticize a religion or religions... which is what these boys are doing. one organization i belong to, our sister chapter at the sam houston state university in a drive to promote free speech and inquiry set up a booth where they would distribute pornography for bibles and that move was a hit with the students, sacrilege for fox news... but it was nonetheless well withing their rights!!!
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Schools should either have a no religious celebrations or have all religious celebrations. Don't like when schools celebrate Christmas Or Diwali only...... Most schools where I have taught try and celebrate as many religious festivals as possible. It is only a little bit difficult to celebrate Eid as a lot of people are scared to offend the Muslim child or parents by mistake.We tried Eid in one school once and some of the mothers of Muslim children were very helpful in getting it done...but there was this tension in the air all the time in case we do something wrong and people get offended.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest dada_rocks

This is classic case of creating mountain out of molehill and that moehill has its genesis in uadulterated hatred for hindu symbolism by chrsitian schools.. just think about it kids to start with were not serious about pooja.. principal claims classroom is not place of pooja so far so good but then he goes to add they were doing mock pooja anyway... So in effect both hindu and chrstian brigaed should be unhappy with these kids.... When kids repented their guardians pleaded then a principle whose only concern was indiscipline would have coneded and let them go with repirmand .. But it didn't happen and the administration went on punishment rampage and there they gave away their lack of regard for hindy symbolism.......They can't tolerate hindu symblism even in mock pooja that's the message.... Had kids and their guardians been admant then this extreme punishment woudl have bene justified btu to punish them the way they were despite them being repentent and their guardians too taking the blame and pleading to be lenient tells me that school admins has some different axe to grind; discipline is just a sidenote.. If they expected anythign different from the wronged guardians and kids they were living in fool's paradise...Althought I would have preferred silent protest ......

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I believe its some sort of christian backlash after the Orissa riots. Although I dont approve of performing pooja on school premises but the school's response is still a little to harsh. I have seen worse offenders let off with a warning, even the ones who used to get into fights all the time. I bet the loser principle who suspended the student got a big Cross hanging on his office wall.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest dada_rocks
I believe its some sort of christian backlash after the Orissa riots. Although I dont approve of performing pooja on school premises but the school's response is still a little to harsh. I have seen worse offenders let off with a warning, even the ones who used to get into fights all the time. I bet the loser principle who suspended the student got a big Cross hanging on his office wall.
:two_thumbs_up: It's nto about discipline here.. these clowns go aroudn shuttign down schools all over India and media acts like their pide piper obviously they are emboldend .............. BTW same media who hates band otherwise
Link to comment
Share on other sites

is this punishment not too outrageous nonetheless? freedom of religion permits you to practice a religion of your choice and also criticize a religion or religions... which is what these boys are doing.
Actually no I dont think so. Look at it rationally: a) St Xaviers is one of the prestigious institutions of the country. You can bet your money that an authentic St. Xaviers in most towns of India would be amongst the most desired by parents, even bhagwa brigade if they could get their kids in that is. The article mentions that it is a school with good history and so obviously it is not some bakwaas school. b) Ganesh Chaturthi is not one of the most popular festivals of Rajasthan. Had it been Maharastra I could still see an argument but Ganesh Chaturthi being celebrated in Jaipur is akin to Durga Puja Pandaal in Pondicherry. c) By the admission of both sides, school and students, it was a mocking incident with people laughing so obviously things were not in good taste, or discipline for that matter. Now we can argue that instead of 20 days suspension there should have been a 2 day suspension or so on but I have no issues with kids getting punished here. xxx
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Religious extremism - In 50 years' date=' hindus are gonna be the new terrorists of the world........atleast inside India.[/quote'] A puja by some teenagers=terrorism! thats funny I wish jehadis would do the same i.e. instead of setting bombs and killing people just offer namaz when they wanna attack Trust me no one will mind or suspend them
Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is classic case of creating mountain out of molehill and that moehill has its genesis in uadulterated hatred for hindu symbolism by chrsitian schools.. just think about it kids to start with were not serious about pooja.. principal claims classroom is not place of pooja so far so good but then he goes to add they were doing mock pooja anyway... So in effect both hindu and chrstian brigaed should be unhappy with these kids.... When kids repented their guardians pleaded then a principle whose only concern was indiscipline would have coneded and let them go with repirmand .. But it didn't happen and the administration went on punishment rampage and there they gave away their lack of regard for hindy symbolism.......They can't tolerate hindu symblism even in mock pooja that's the message.... Had kids and their guardians been admant then this extreme punishment woudl have bene justified btu to punish them the way they were despite them being repentent and their guardians too taking the blame and pleading to be lenient tells me that school admins has some different axe to grind; discipline is just a sidenote.. If they expected anythign different from the wronged guardians and kids they were living in fool's paradise...Althought I would have preferred silent protest ......
shut your yapper... it is quite evident that the reason for punishing the students is not a pogrom against hindus but an attempt to discourage the practice of any religious ideology other than christian in christian missionary schools. the response would have been just as uncompromising had it been say some islamic ritual etc etc. if you somehow think that such missionary school are a farce, then present an alternative. DAV schools or gurukuls fall way short of matching st. xaviers in the quality of education. so till you have an alternative, dont go around slinging mud at reputable schools. and guess what, when in another thread you tried to pass ekal vidyalay as an achievement of VHP, i should have know better that you were as full of gas a well fed baby who had just had a healthy doze of milk and lettuce... ekal vidyalay, while quite an achievement was begun as a charity distinct from VHP or the RSS. the discussion here is attempting to evaluate whether the students were within their rights of religious freedom when they performed the rituals, even if they were mocking otherwise pointless and absurd hindu rituals (in all fairness, it is however a religion that is less full of **** than some of the other ones, but full of **** nonetheless), or is the school no place for religion and other hokus focus, or was the school within its right of enforcing religion in the name of forbidding religious intolerance?
Link to comment
Share on other sites

A puja by some teenagers=terrorism! thats funny I wish jehadis would do the same i.e. instead of setting bombs and killing people just offer namaz when they wanna attack Trust me no one will mind or suspend them
not a puja, a mock puja to trivialize otherwise trivial hindu beliefs... the terrorism branigan speaks of here is what the BJYP members committed on the school campus by trespassing, and destruction of property and of course, of lodging their heads firmly up their own backsides.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

A puja by some teenagers=terrorism! thats funny I wish jehadis would do the same i.e. instead of setting bombs and killing people just offer namaz when they wanna attack Trust me no one will mind or suspend them
not a puja, a mock puja to trivialize otherwise trivial hindu beliefs... the terrorism branigan speaks of here is what the BJYP members committed on the school campus by trespassing, and destruction of property and of course, of lodging their heads firmly up their own backsides.
.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest dada_rocks
name one.
You have perfected the art of selsective myopic man.. Otherwise anyone who wfollowed this latest hindu/christian strife in Orissa would have known all chrstian schools throughout India closed its premises in support of killers of Priest and his girl child ashram inmates.. And media played footsie with them yes the same ones who cry million tears over anyone else orchestrating similar shut-down
Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...