Bigotry has blighted the lives of these school children studying in Mewat Modern School in Marhi village, Haryana, just 115 kilometres away from the national Capital. Four Hindu students studying here said that life in school was a torture for them with Muslim teachers forcing them to offer namaz; the teachers allegedly even slapped them if they did not follow. Two students have since left, and two are still studying there.

“In 2014 we used to stay in the hostel and there was a warden whom we used to call Arif Sir. Sir used to compulsorily make us offer namaz. He would call those who did not read it and slap them. We left the hostel in 2015 because after we said we did not want to recite, the teacher forcibly started teaching us Urdu instead of Sanskrit,” said one of the students.

The school has 207 students, and it had three Muslim teachers who continuously exhorted them to turn towards Islam, as it was a “good religion.” Two Hindu school children who had recently joined the school said they complained about their teachers behaviour for some time now to their parents but the parents had taken no notice of them.

It was only when one of the parents found their child performing namaz at home was a complaint launched and preliminary enquiry conducted on July 30. Maniram Sharma, the Deputy Commissioner of the area took action. Two of the three Muslim teachers have been suspended and one was transferred.

Bijendra Singh, who is the father of the child who was performing namaz at home, says he still cannot get over the shock. “I told my child not to get into these things and keep the focus on studies.”

One of the Muslim teachers said he was being framed.