New Delhi: Various English-language newspapers have condemned the conduct of Uttar Pradesh schoolteacher Tripta Tyagi, who asked her seven-year-old students to beat a classmate who did not learn his multiplication tables.In a video of the incident that has since gone viral, Tyagi is also heard referring to the student’s Muslim religion.All the editorials below express concern about Tyagi making prejudicial comments inside a classroom. Many endorse exemplary punishment for her, and some juxtapose the situation ‘on the ground’ with India’s historic Moon landing last week.‘Too much is at stake’: the Indian ExpressThe editorial of the Indian Express finds that the incident is part of a larger pattern of polarisation: “Admittedly, the incident is set in a larger backdrop. An increasing political polarisation is steadily trickling into public and private spaces, giving electoral contests a new edge, and circumscribing debates in between elections.”It continues: “The prejudice that made the teacher in Muzaffarnagar choreograph the horrific punishment and draft seven-year-olds into its brutish design, and the normalisation of prejudice which dictates her and-so-what responses in the aftermath, speak of disquieting things,” referring to Tyagi later downplaying the incident in media interviews.IE says that although civil society must take responsibility for countering “the brutalisation of the classroom”, it is up to the political class to send an appropriate message following the incident.“There is too much at stake,” the editorial concludes by saying. “Quite simply, the steps forward taken by the new National Education Policy, which seeks to promote a more innovative teaching and a more creative learning … will be tested if hate is allowed to enter the classroom – and get away with it.”The newspaper also pointed out that a separate incident in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua town, where a Muslim teacher beat a student for writing ‘Jai Shri Ram’ on a blackboard, “does not cancel out the Muzaffarnagar outrage – it only adds to it.”‘Time for society to wake up’: the Free Press JournalLike IE, an editorial by the Mumbai-based Free Press Journal also says that the Muzaffarnagar incident is a sign of the normalisation of prejudice.“The normalisation of this toxicity, be it in Manipur, in Haryana and now in Muzaffarnagar, is bound to have disastrous consequences,” FPJ warns. “When school teachers become purveyors of hate, it is time for society as a whole to wake up and take action.”Comparing the Muzaffarnagar and Kathua incidents, FPJ notes the different treatment given to the two offending teachers.“While a teacher in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua district was promptly arrested, and rightfully so, for beating up a boy who wrote ‘Jai Shri Ram’ on the class blackboard, the Muzaffarnagar teacher is still freely giving interviews to the media,” it says.Referring to the Muzaffarnagar incident taking place just a day after India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission successfully landed on the Moon, FPJ asks what kind of example the former has set. “Is this what we want future generations in India to learn? Not the wonders of science and education but the narrow schisms of religion and [bigotry?]”Its editorial concludes by pointing out that the incident has occurred just days before various world leaders are scheduled to arrive in New Delhi for the G20 summit this year.“On the eve of the G20 summit, when India will host a plethora of world leaders in New Delhi, is this the face of the country that the government wishes to project?“The national capital is being spruced up and all unsightly elements are being swept away. Can the bigotry and hatred also be cast aside?”Also Read: No Mercy for the Vulnerable as Authorities Beautified Urban Areas for G20 Events: Report‘Teach the teacher’: the Times of IndiaThat’s the title of TOI‘s editorial on the Muzaffarnagar incident, in which the paper spotlights the discrimination in India’s education institutions.“In research going back more than a decade (Hanna and Linden 2009), discrimination towards minority students was noted among teachers in a medium-sized Indian city … The investigation also found that much of the discrimination came from minority teachers themselves, which suggested that minority teachers may be internalising particular beliefs about their communities,” TOI says.It continues to say that these “are not abstract academic concerns … caste prejudice plays out even in elite institutions like [the] IITs. Making an example out of teacher-offenders like the one in Muzaffarnagar is a good start to tackling this toxicity.”“But the teacher is still making statements and not in custody. Do you need any more prima facie evidence to take preliminary police action?”‘Downright macabre’: the Economic TimesIn an editorial titled “Say & repeat: Hitting children is wrong”, the Economic Times condemns Tyagi’s statement to the media that she asked her students to beat their Muslim classmate owing to her inability to physically get up and beat the student herself.“Tyagi’s explanation for fomenting this proto-lynch mob mentality inside a classroom – that she is differently abled, and so had to direct others to do the needful – is downright macabre,” ET says.Also Read: The BJP’s Poison Has Now Reached India’s Schools“Hitting children is wrong. These four words need to be spelt out since not every law-abiding citizen in circa 2023 India seems to think it applies to them, especially if they happen to be adults in positions of power and responsibility over young people”, it continues to say.“Corporal punishment, like ragging, must be recognised as crime, and not tolerated as part of some perverted notion of ‘tough love’.”ET concludes its editorial by saying that while various laws exist to punish the physical abuse of children, “the (figurative) whip must come down on perpetrators. Adding a communal layer to violence against children makes the offence more grotesque.”‘Scar he has to live with forever’: the New Indian ExpressShifting focus to the Muslim student’s plight, the New Indian Express writes in its editorial that his “humiliation is a scar he has to live with forever. The boy needs proper counselling to process and overcome the demeaning and dehumanising assault.”Also condemning Tyagi’s statements after the fact, TNIE writes that she seemed to be unaware of her responsibilities as a teacher.“Even after the incident led to national outrage, the teacher’s comments suggest she didn’t see anything wrong in the punishment per se but only in its mode of delivery. She appeared unaware that corporal punishment was declared illegal by the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009.”“Schools should be safe places for students to grow and learn, not horror chambers for the persecuted,” its editorial ends by saying.Also Read: How are India’s Muslims Feeling?‘A slap on communal harmony’: the Deccan ChronicleDeccan Chronicle‘s editorial draws our attention to the kind of choices the Muslim student’s father perceived as having after his son was beaten.“It must be remembered that the father of the child had first said that he would not lodge a complaint against the teacher, indicating his total distrust in government machinery. It is only after social and political organisations took up the matter that he lodged the FIR.”DC also writes about how the incident is a symptom of the neglect of India’s education sector.“The teacher remaining unapologetic about her crude and inhuman method of teaching is, meanwhile, a pointer towards the scant attention we pay to our education system when we are supposed to invest in its qualitative and quantitative improvement,” its editorial says.“We had, decades ago, set a target of earmarking 6% of the GDP for education but the highest allocation as per the finance minister was made only this year at 4.5%.”‘Islamophobia the elephant in the classroom’: The TribuneIn its editorial titled “Deepening Divide”, The Tribune writes that similar other incidents have preceded the one in Muzaffarnagar.“That Islamophobia is becoming the elephant in the classroom is evident from the increasing frequency of such cases being reported. Last December, the video clip of a Muslim student of Manipal University in Karnataka confronting his teacher for comparing him with Ajmal Kasab had gone viral,” it points out.“In this atmosphere of political polarisation, educational institutes should set an example by preaching and practising communal harmony. Otherwise, the social fabric of our country would be in danger of becoming tattered,” it continues to say.The Tribune also endorsed punishment for Tyagi. “If found guilty of inciting hatred, the teacher should be given exemplary punishment that would serve as a warning to all those who look at people through a communal prism, especially those belonging to the disadvantaged or minority sections of society.”
