Image: Grace Pinto on the left. Image from www.ryaninternational.org

Ryan International School in New Delhi recently came into the infamous limelight when it allegedly held a mass recruitment drive for the BJP. The kicker came when students, parents and teachers claimed that the management - specifically the Chairman of the Institute, Grace Pinto - was forcing them to join the BJP and that the recruitment drive was actually across various institutes across the country.





Speaking to FirstPost , several of the faculty of the schools in Delhi said that every member of the staff and most of the students had been given forms and instructed to enrol some ten members into the BJP. Some of the staff even alleged that their salaries were being withheld until they fulfilled this quota.





The drive was even apparently hi-tech, with parents who belonged to common teacher-parent WhatsApp groups getting messages with a number on it - asking them to give it a miss-call. That number turned out to also be part of the BJP membership drive - the miss-call returning a message with the BJP's recruitment wing number.





Once the action was discovered, the AAP-led Delhi government quickly cracked down, with a show-cause notice sent to the schools and to Chairman Grace Pinto. "This is extremely dangerous. What is happening in schools? There can be nothing more dangerous than schools forcing students into politics. If there is some truth in the story we will take strict action. Students go to schools to study and make a career for themselves, not to join political parties," Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia reportedly said.





Managing Director Grace Pinto, who has been the focus of the allegations, has denied it all. In a statement to FirstPost she said -

"The allegation is baseless. The propaganda is to bring disrepute to the institution. Yes, the membership drive was launched within the campus but it was absolutely voluntary. No one was forced to do so. Additionally, the management never asked students and parents to join the BJP,"





The BJP, for its part, seems to be choosing ignorance as the better part of valor. The party so far has denied any ties with Mrs Pinto.





So is Mrs Pinto merely a BJP bhakt who took things too far? The issue seems to be a little more twisted than that. It would that Mrs Pinto has always been trying to get into the best books of the government - no matter which party actually is running the government at the time.





According to a report in Tehelka , Mrs Pinto was originally trying her best to get close to the Congress supremo Sonia Gandhi, during the UPA tenure. Tehelka alleges that Mrs Pinto was not only looking for friends, but favors as well.





Specifically she wanted a Padmasree for herself, a seat in the Minority Commission for her husband Augustine Pinto (who started all the schools), and is even eying a Rajya Sabha seat for herself.





It would seem that the UPA did not really pay much attention to Mrs Pinto, so she switched loyalties to the BJP. Interestingly, in the same Tehelka article Mrs Pinto is said to be the General Secretary of the BJP's Mahila Morcha. However when FirstPost asked the BJP's Women's Wing President Kamaljeet Sehrawat, the answer was - "I head the party’s Delhi unit’s women cell but I don’t know anyone called Grace Pinto in my team,"





For now the issue is on the back-burner, with all sides having bigger fish to fry.





Ryan International Group of Institutions, despite its fancy foreign name, has very Desi roots. The private institutes for education were started in 1976 by Augustine Pinto, with a St. Xavier's High School in Borivali, Mumbai.





Things are expanded greatly since then, with the Christian minority institute going on to open some 100+ schools over the years. To quote Augustine Pinto, from the enterprises’ official website - "Twenty five years ago, God planted a seed in my heart and directed me to spread affordable, high quality English medium education within Indian society. Finally, our efforts, dedication and vision have helped us establish one of the largest chains of high quality education institutes in the country."





Mumbai still takes the cake, with some 27 schools dotted around the Greater Mumbai area, all named after various Christian saints. But the Delhi branches, and all subsequent expansions have been merely named 'Ryan International School', with some 10 in the National Capital Region.





The 'international' part of the name seems to be mainly from the expensive standards, facilities and services that the school offers. They have only two schools abroad, both in the UAE.





It is a family run affair. Husband Pinto founded out the enterprise, wife Grace Pinto is the Managing Director (described in the official website as ‘Amicable, articulate and aware’)and son Ryan Pinto (after whom presumably all this is named) is the CEO.