Rajasthan: Students protest suspension of teachers accused of facilitating religious conversions

Dozens of students from a government school in Sangod, in Rajasthan’s Kota district, organised a protest on Monday after the state government suspended three of the school’s Muslim teachers in response to allegations that they were forcing students to offer namaz in an attempt to convert them to Islam, The Indian Express reported.

The allegations were made by the Sarva Hindu Samaj, a Hindutva group based in Sangod. The students have demanded that their teachers be reinstated.

The state government had on Thursday issued suspension orders against two teachers named Mirza Mujahid and Firoz Khan. On Saturday, a third suspension order was issued against another teacher, Shabana.

The orders were issued after the Hindutva group complained to Rajasthan School Education Minister Madan Dilawar that a former girl student, who was a Hindu, had been allegedly identified as a Muslim in the register at the Khajuri Odpur government school in Sangod.

The former student had eloped with a Muslim man after completing her schooling, The Indian Express reported. This triggered a controversy over the school allegedly choosing to mark her religion as Muslim.

The education minister on Friday said that strict action had been taken against the three teachers, The Hindustan Times reported. “A conspiracy of religious conversion and ‘love jihad’ is happening there,” Dilawar said, adding that...

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