Chennai: An headmistress of a government school in Dharmapuri district entered a controversy after she refused to hoist or salute the national flag by saying that her religion does not allow her to do so. The headmistress refused to hoist the flag even on Independence Day on Monday.
According to a report on India Today, after the headmistress refused to hoist the flag, the assistant headmistress hoisted the flag on Independence Day.
The headmistress, Tamilselvi, is a staff of the school for the past four years and she had always been avoiding the flag hoisting by taking sick leaves. On August 15, along with the Independence Day celebration, arrangements were also made to facilitate her since she was slated to retire by the end of 2022.
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Hence, Tamilselvi arrived at the school. Later, Tamilselvi in a video said that she did not mean to disrespect the national flag but refrained from the hoisting and saluting the flag since she was a Yakoba Christian. She said that they salute only the god and no one else.
As a result, she added that she told her assistant headmistress to hoist the flag.
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However, after the video went viral, the villagers gave a formal complaint to Dharmapuri Chief Educational Officer and insisted him to take action. The complaint said that over the years she had denied hoisting the I-Day flag and instead took sick leave. Also, the headmistress was acting biased towards a particular religion.
The villagers also said that if the CEO fails to take action they would stop sending their children to school.
In recent days, the teachers of government schools are coming under a scanner after audio or video leaks. Earlier, an audio of a school teacher showing bias against Dalits went viral and created a controversy.