By Mobin Pandit
Doha: A woman teacher of a famous Indian school here was forced by the management to resign yesterday after she posted a caricature of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on her Facebook account.
The incident happened last week and triggered a huge controversy in a section of the Indian expatriate community as some objected to the caricature saying the ‘photoshop’ work was insulting to the prime minister.
The caricature comprised superimposed photographs of a cut-out of the Premier’s face and a black-and-white striped dog shown emptying its bladder.
The teacher said the caricature was circulating on social media and she just picked, shared and posted it on her Facebook account.
“I didn’t create the caricature nor did I post it to insult Modi,” the teacher told this newspaper. “I just used it to protest against what has been happening back home” (a reference to alleged gagging of the freedom of speech!). The teacher was initially suspended for three days pending inquiry by the management.
Yesterday she was asked to put in her papers, which she said she did.
Her friends told this newspaper that they found the school’s action shocking because India being a democratic country, its citizens enjoyed freedom of expression. However, contacted for comment, the management of MES Indian School said they had asked the teacher to quit since she used the school’s name and logo with Modi’s caricature.
“Also, being a teacher, she shouldn’t have posted such a derogatory caricature on her Facebook account. A teacher is a role model for the entire society,” said a senior official from the management.
The teacher, who insisted she shouldn’t be identified, said she didn’t know how the school’s name and logo appeared on her posting, for she was part of a group.
She said she got threats on her Facebook account after she posted the caricature. “The influence of these people (a reference to Hindu rightist supporters of Modi) can be gauged from the fact that they can silence anti-Modi comments and photographs on social media even in the GCC countries,” the teacher said.
The school official said that after the posting of the caricature by the teacher the school got calls from several parents.
Source added that the school came under intense external pressure to fire the teacher and her resignation was a compromise formula, although a school official denied it.
Meanwhile, a vernacular newspaper published from here, Varthamanam, said some people linked to the Hindu rightist organisations sent an email to the Indian embassy informing about the teacher’s Facebook posting.
The embassy contacted the school and enquired about the teacher and asked it to take action, said the daily.
But the school principal told the daily that the teacher was asked to quit because she used the school’s name in her Facebook profile. Another vernacular daily, Chandrika, said the embassy forwarded the email to the school asking it to take action against the teacher.
The embassy couldn’t be immediately contacted for comment.
The Peninsula
