UP Teacher Who Asked Students To Slap Muslim Classmate Says ‘It’s A Small Matter’

Representational photo.

New Delhi: The Uttar Pradesh teacher whose video of asking students to slap their Muslim classmate on Saturday claimed that her action was not communal in nature. Tripta Tyagi said she asked some students to slap him because the boy had not been doing his homework. She also said that the viral clip was distorted.
“There was pressure from the child’s parents to be strict with him. I am handicapped, so I made some students slap him up so that he would start doing his homework,” she is reported to have said, adding that the video was edited to give the whole episode a communal angle. “The child’s uncle was sitting in the class. The video was recorded by him which was later distorted,” she said, referring to offensive words she was heard using against a community in the video.

According to the teacher, it was a “small matter” that was exaggerated after the video went viral.

“This wasn’t my intention. They all are like my kids and I am accepting my mistake, but this was unnecessarily turned into a big issue”, she said.

“I want to tell politicians that this was a small matter. Leaders, including Rahul Gandhi have tweeted, but it was not such a big thing to tweet about. How will teachers teach if daily issues like these are made viral,” she said.

According to NDTV, Aravind Mallappa Bangari, District Magistrate, Muzaffarnagar said that a case has been registered against the teacher

“The parents were initially not agreeing to give a complaint but this morning they gave a complaint to the local police station, and it has been registered. Legal action will be taken in the case,” Bangari said, adding that the boy’s father had yesterday said that he would not press charges against the school. However,  he has decided not to send his child to this school anymore.