Telangana BJP leader taken into custody for manhandling school principal

Hyderabad, June 29 (IANS) After a huge uproar, the Telangana Police on Monday took into custody a BJP leader in Armoor town of Nizamabad district for allegedly assaulting a school principal over the teaching of Urdu.

Mandula Balu, president of BJP’s Armoor town unit, was taken into custody from a guest house in Ankapoor, reportedly belonging to Paidi Rakesh Reddy, the BJP MLA from the Armoor Assembly constituency.

A posse of police personnel physically lifted Balu out of the guest house and whisked him away.

Balu and his supporters tried to resist the police. The BJP leader termed the police action as cruel.

Balu had slapped Amer Khan, the principal of Bharat Chandra School, on June 27. The BJP leader’s action in the presence of a police officer and the inaction by the police had triggered an outrage.

The video of the assault was widely shared on social media. Some leaders of the Congress party, including its national spokesperson Shama Mohamed, had demanded action against the BJP leader and the police officer.

The BJP leader and his supporters were irked over the teaching of Urdu at the private school. During an argument at the school, Balu slapped the principal and abused him.

BJP leaders alleged that the Urdu teacher was also teaching Namaaz and other religious practices to Hindu students.

The school management, headed by Hindus, denied this. They stated that Urdu was introduced as the second language as per a decision taken by the school management following requests from the parents of a section of students.

School correspondent Mallayya said the Urdu teacher took a couple of classes and taught the Urdu alphabet.

According to Amer Khan, the management was planning to have a separate block for the Urdu department. However, the newly appointed Urdu teacher wasn’t aware of this and took a combined class.

Following objections from parents of non-Muslim students, Urdu classes were discontinued, but a local BJP leader, along with his supporters, barged into the school and manhandled the principal.

Amer Khan alleged that following the incident, he was held at the police station till evening.

Based on the complaint filed by school correspondent Mallayya, police registered an FIR against BJP leader Balu and others for criminal trespass, causing hurt and mischief.

Tahsildar Satyanarayana of Armoor lodged a counter complaint under section 196 read with 3(5) of BNS (promoting enmity between groups) against the school principal and correspondent.

Meanwhile, Congress MP Renuka Chowdhury has reacted to the incident. “Urdu is a wonderfully rich language. Our older generations knew how to read Urdu. It is a language. It is a culture which has influenced several aspects of Telangana’s history. BJP and its grandfathers have NO right to stop it,” posted the former Union minister.

The Rajya Sabha member also shared a poem on the beauty and sweetness of the Urdu language, which describes Urdu as one of the proud treasures of India and a language belonging to all, irrespective of their religion.

–IANS

ms/uk