Video of a schoolteacher being slapped in Muzaffarnagar: charges are bailable; opposition criticizes BJP for “hate politics”

The Muzaffarnagar Police on Saturday arrested the teacher accused of making racial remarks and forcing her pupils to spank a Muslim classmate for not finishing his homework as fury came in from all sides, including political parties.

The state education department also sent the school a warning in relation to the situation.

A day after a video surfaced of Tripta Tyagi, a teacher at Khubbapur village’s Neha Public School, ordering pupils to smack a Class 2 kid and making a derogatory comment, she was arrested.

The video prompted heated reactions from a number of political figures, with NCPCR, the top organization for children’s rights, calling for the accused instructor to be punished.

In response to the boy’s family’s complaint, police charged Tyagi with violating IPC sections 323 and 504, both of which are non-cognizable offenses. Such offenses call for a warrant, are subject to bail, and do not result in an instant arrest.

Tyagi has argued in her defense that the video has been altered to inflame resentment. She said that the boy’s uncle took the video.

She said that although getting a kid slapped by his classmates was improper on her side, she was compelled to do it due to her disability and was unable to rise up and approach the student who had not completed his task.

A show-cause notice has been sent to the school administration, according to Muzaffarnagar’s Basic Shiksha Adhikari Shubham Shukla, through the management committee’s secretary Ravinder Tyagi.

It has been requested to respond by August 28 with a justification for the continued government recognition of the institution.

The BSA said that a team has been deployed to the school and added that a criminal complaint will be filed against the administrators there.

The situation escalated into a conflict between the BJP and the opposition parties, many of whom said that the governing party’s “politics of hate” created the conditions for such an occurrence to occur.

The National Commission for Protecting the Rights of Children In order to register a FIR in the case, Saturday said it issued letters to the district administration and the UP Police.

Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the Congress, denounced the event on Friday in a post on X, stating that a teacher could not have done more harm to the nation, and he blamed the BJP of poisoning people’s minds.

There is nothing a teacher could do to harm the nation more than to plant the seed of prejudice in the brains of young children and to transform a sacred space like a school into a marketplace of hate.

“This is the same kerosene spilled by the BJP that has ignited fire in every nook and cranny of India. Children are India’s future, and we must all teach them love rather than hate, he remarked.

Mallikarjun Kharge, president of the Congress, criticized the BJP for its “divisive thinking” and said that such occurrences “tarnish our global image.”

A teacher might instruct her pupils to slap a youngster from a minority group over his religion, according to the Samajwadi Party, because of the “politics of hate” of the BJP and RSS.

In a tweet, SP leader Akhilesh Yadav asked that the teacher be fired immediately and referred to her as a “blot on teacher society.”

Yadav’s post on X was seen as having a political motive by BJP spokesman Harishchandra Srivastava.

“Akhilesh Yadav’s tweet on the Muzaffarnagar school tragedy is petty politics with a despicable political purpose designed to sow discord in society.

“We have all experienced being disciplined by teachers for not remembering tables, not fixing math problems, or not having good writing skills in our school years, and this is a natural process of improving discipline and talent in students,” he added.

The victim’s father, Irshad, was spoken to by Rashtriya Lok Dal president Jayant Chaudhary, who told him that justice will be served.

Varun Gandhi, a member of the Pilibhit BJP, called the event despicable in a post on X.

“The nation as a whole is hanging its head in shame at the sense of hatred against a youngster in the temple of knowledge. A teacher is a gardener who cultivates not only a person’s personality but also a country by introducing information as fertilizer during the early rituals.

Therefore, teachers must meet rigorous standards that go beyond shady politics. It is a matter of the nation’s future, he remarked.

The family of the boy in Khubbapur was visited on Saturday by leaders of various political and non-political organizations, including BKU President Naresh Tikait, Uttar Pradesh Imam Organization President Mufti Zulfikar Ali, UP Jamiat-e-ulema Hind Vice President Maulana Nazer Muhammad, and a Congress fact-finding committee led by district Congress President Subodh Sharma.

Circle Officer Ravi Shankar had said on Friday that it seems, at least initially, that the kid was physically assaulted for failing to turn in his or her schoolwork, and there was nothing wrong about it.

The NCPCR requested in writing that the Muzaffarnagar District Magistrate provide pertinent information on the school where the event took place.

On X, NCPCR chairman Priyank Kanoongo requested users not to share the footage of the unfortunate kid being hit by his classmates in order to protect his identity.