The Akhil Bharatiya Rashtriya Shaikshik Mahasangh said it strictly stands against the politicisation of schools in the state after the CJP team’s visit.
A day after a Cockroach Janta Party team was chased away by a few people during a visit to a government school in Jaipur district, a teachers’ body in Rajasthan on Saturday said educational institutions would not be allowed to become “pitches of political conflict”. It said schools should not be turned into sites of political confrontation and that any concerns should be taken up through official channels.
The Akhil Bharatiya Rashtriya Shaikshik Mahasangh said it was not defending the government, but was speaking out against “politicising school grounds for political motives”. The body also said any member of the public can visit a school only after obtaining formal permission from the head of the institution, and that using administrative orders as political leverage or pressuring educators was unacceptable.
On Friday, the CJP team went to Rampura Kanwarpura village to inspect the condition of a government school, alleging that it was being run in a buffalo shed. A confrontation followed, with the CJP accusing the locals of being “BJP goons”. A day later, the party and the villagers lodged FIRs and counter-FIRs against each other, accusing one another of assault and creating a ruckus.
Addressing a press conference in Kota, ABRSM state vice president Puranmal Nagar said the attempted inspection by “external political workers triggered sharp opposition from local villagers, escalating into verbal altercations and physical scuffles”. While saying the federation does not support violence under any circumstances, he questioned the rationale behind dragging school premises into biased disputes. He said any genuine concerns over school facilities or administrative shortcomings should be routed through designated official channels in the education department and the state administration.
Navalkishore Sharma, vice president of ABRSM’s primary education wing, said the state government and the education department were carrying out phased reforms to improve school infrastructure. He said members of the public could visit schools only after taking formal permission from the institution head, and added that using administrative orders as political leverage or pressuring educators was unacceptable. “Teachers exist to shape the future of students, not to advance the agenda of any political organization,” Sharma said.
ABRSM state media cell member Suresh Kumar Bairagi appealed to teachers, parents, villagers and public representatives to maintain peace and resolve disputes through proper legal and administrative means. He said ABRSM-linked teacher activists across 10,000 government schools in Rajasthan were working to improve physical and educational resources.