Suresh DravidA row has erupted in Haryana with a group of teachers alleging that one of them was booked for sedition “for speaking against the government” during a protest in front of a minister’s residence in Kaithal earlier this week. The teachers claimed that the police dropped the charge on Tuesday, a day before their scheduled protest over the issue. The Haryana Police, however, said the sedition charge was dropped just a day after registration of the FIR on September 23.
Suresh Dravid, a primary school teacher, was booked for sedition 15 days after he allegedly gave a speech in front of the residence of Minister Kamlesh Dhanda on September 8. The FIR was registered on the complaint of a head constable Madan Lal who claimed that he saw the video clip of the speech on the social media on September 23. Terming it as an attempt to suppress the voice of people and preventing them from staging protests, the teacher bodies in Haryana planned an agitation in front of mini-secretariat in Kaithal on Wednesday followed by a five-day long dharna.
A delegation of the teachers also met Kaithal SP Maqsood Ahmed on Tuesday seeking cancellation of the FIR.
However, the Kaithal police, in the evening, issued a press note stating that “it was wrongly propagated that the JBT teacher has been booked under the sedition charges”. SHO, Kaithal Police Station, Inspector Mahender Singh said: “Section 124-A was invoked wrongly by the investigating officer and it was dropped on September 24 itself. After an inquiry, the charges were invoked as per the offence. Further investigation of the matter is still going on.”
The police have now lodged an FIR under Sections 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) and 153 (provocation) of the IPC and Section 3 of the Police (incitement to disaffection) Act, 1922.
According to Haryana Vidyalaya Adhyapak Sangh leader Satbir Singh, the protest in front of the minister’s residence on September 8 was held to oppose the closure and merger of government schools in state. The protest was held under the banner of Jan Shiksha Adhikar Manch, a state level body of teachers and parents.
Meanwhile, Suresh was suspended on September 12, before being reinstated “pending inquiry” on September 19. A junior basic teacher, Suresh is district president of a primary school teachers’ union.
In his complaint, head constable Madal Lal claimed he was at the minister’s residence on security duty when the protesters had come there to give a memorandum. “Someone said the black (farm) laws by the government were introduced so that the land” goes to corporates and the labour laws were amended “so that labourers won’t be able to initiate action” against corporates, the complaint read. According to the head constable, the person also said that “the government doesn’t have the right to pass the laws in violation of the Constitution” and without a debate, and “I feel the public won’t tolerate this and the condition is going to deteriorate more than of Sri Lanka”.
According to the FIR, after watching the video clipping on social media on September 23, the head constable told the police that he already knew Suresh and blamed him for attempting “to create hate among the people against the government and incite them by giving the speech”. The head constable accused Suresh of using “objectionable language” against the Prime Minister also while quoting him as stating that “the public had not given him rights to sell the properties of the country”. According to the complaint, the accused teacher had also urged the police personnel and armymen to rise “a revolt to save the constitution, public and employment”.
Terming the accusation of “sedition” as unjustifiable, Jan Shiksha Adhikar Manch convener and a retired government school principal Jarnail Singh said: “Suresh’s comments were mere a reflection of his pain as the teachers are fearing losing their employment in case of closure of government schools. He was just representing the resentment of those who are worried over the policy of privatisation of education and selling of PSUs in the country.”
Echoing similar sentiments, Satbir Singh said the teacher’s speech was merely a way of expression of resentment. “We have come to know that under the policy of merger, 105 government schools have been closed while 4,801 were being merged,” said Satbir Singh, adding parents of school students and college students will also participate in the Kaithal protest.
In August, the Haryana government had initiated a process to merge middle and high schools having a smaller number of students with nearby government schools available within 3 km. The move, the government has said, is aimed at optimum utilisation of available infrastructure and human resources. Teachers’ bodies and Opposition, however, allege that the move will adversely affect the studies of students especially from backward communities insisting “most poor only send their children to the schools if they are located near their homes”.