A Dalit lecturer and a head constable hailing from the tribal Meena community were suspended on March 1 in two different incidents. Both suspensions were for allegedly asking aspirants from the Brahmin community to remove their janeu (a thread worn by men from the Brahmin community) during frisking at the examination centres for the Rajasthan Eligibility Examination for Teachers (REET) held on February 27 and 28.
In the first instance, the district collector of Dungarpur issued an order and suspended Sunita Kumari, a Dalit lecturer in a government school situated in Khera Kachwasa village. Hours later, in a second instance, an order was also issued against a Shivlal, a head constable from the Meena community, by the superintendent of police in Dungarpur. Shivlal was sent to the police lines initiating a departmental inquiry.
Both examinations were held for recruiting government teachers. The issue sparked controversy after videos went viral on social media claiming that the aspirants were made to remove their janeu.
However, both the accused, Kumari and Shivlal, have denied that any such incident took place.
The family members of Kumari, who was posted as a field supervisor at a government school in Dungarpur바카라s Sundarpur, an examination centre for REET, have raised the question: 'How can a woman superintendent frisk male students?'
"My examination went smoothly and no such incident was ever mentioned by my wife whose duty was confined to only checking the identity cards of officials entering the centre. She was not alone but was accompanied by the centre superintendent, assistant centre superintendent and the observer. The videos circulating on social media are not from the centre where my wife was posted. How can a female frisk male aspirants?", Vikas Kumar, husband of Sunita Kumari, told Outlook.
The suspension order of Kumari, by the Dungarpur district collector's office, mentions that an action was taken against her after receiving a memorandum from the Vipra Foundation (a body working for the rights of Brahmins) and from the media.
Similarly, in the second incident too, fellow policemen came to the support of the suspended head constable, by saying that the video was made to create trouble.
The head constable Shivlal was posted at a college in Punali village along with other police personnel during the REET examination, he told Outlook. "No one at the centre asked anyone to remove their janeus. We were doing our duties of frisking, which includes ensuring no candidate takes mobile phones, Bluetooth watches and jewellery inside the examination hall. I was shocked to hear about the enquiry. All other staff members have supported me and written to the administration, refuting that such an incident took place."
Rakesh Katara, a constable who was posted at the examination centre along with Shivlal, has written a letter to the district collector stating that no such incident took place and that the inquiry against the head constable should be revoked.
"We also got to see the videos on social media about Brahmin candidates who had appeared in the REET examinations stating such allegations. But in reality nothing of this sort had happened at the centre. In the videos being circulated, no policeman is asking a student to remove a janeu. We still can't understand why an enquiry has been set against our colleague," Katara told Outlook.
Brahmin Outfits Demand Action
In Rajasthan, Brahmin outfits held protests and demanded action against the officials who they alleged had made Brahmin candidates remove their janeu.
"We received videos, information that some employees deputed in two examination centres of Dungarpur forcibly made Brahmin candidates remove their janeu. Our organisation has strongly condemned this and written to the district collector to take strong action against those and ensure that such incidents, which are an insult to the Brahmin community and the Sanatan Dharma, are not repeated in the future", Narendra Paliwal of the Vipra Foundation told the media.
Reacting to the Congress MLA's remarks, BJP president Madan Rathore told reporters that the government will ensure that such incidents don바카라t happen again in the future. "We shall ensure that such an incident does not happen again. How can a thread be a threat in the examination hall, causing a scope for cheating," Rathore told reporters.
Dalit, Tribal Activists Slam BJP Government
The incidents have led to Dalit and tribal groups slamming the BJP government in Rajasthan for singling out government employees from Dalit and Adivasi communities and punishing them. They have demanded that the action taken against them be revoked.
"In Rajasthan, during various recruitment examinations, there is a system in place where candidates are required to remove all items associated with their religious and social identity. Due to the strict enforcement of this rule, candidates are not even allowed to wear sweaters during the cold season. Married women are required to remove their mangalsutras, buttons on clothes are cut off, and if a nose pin cannot be removed, it is covered with tape. In this context, during the recently held REET examination in Rajasthan, why is it even a question if a candidate was also asked to remove his janeu (sacred thread), which is not unusual. It is not as if once a janeu is worn, it can never be removed바카라people often take it off on different occasions. However, this time, Vipra Foundation turned the issue into a matter of Brahmin identity,바카라 Bhanwar Meghwanshi, a Dalit rights activist told Outlook.
바카라Vipra Foundation, which is a government-backed institution, should not act like a caste-based assembly. Similarly, the government should not demoralise its committed officials by punishing them without any fault. The suspended employees should be reinstated immediately, and all candidates should be instructed to appear for examinations without any caste or religious symbols. If every caste community starts adopting an aggressive stance over its symbols, how will free and fair examinations be conducted?바카라 added Meghwanshi, also the state president of People바카라s Union For Civil Liberties.
The Bharat Adivasi Party (BAP) has demanded that no action be taken against Kumari and Shivlal. The government employees have been unfairly targeted and it is an attempt to tarnish the marginalised communities. We have found that no such incident had ever taken place. The government has singled out a Dalit teacher and an Adivasi constable and suspended them even without verifying. Nowhere in the video are they seen. So, how can an action be taken against them?바카라, Rajkumar Roat, MP from BAP in Banswara told Outlook.
