A school play, a clerical mistake and an interfaith elopement – behind the suspension of 3 Muslim teachers over conversion claims in Rajasthan

But, over the next few days, the school would find itself at the centre of polarising developments, with allegations emerging of conversion and love jihad, leading to the suspension of all three Muslim teachers at the school on the orders of the state’s Education Minister. As for the play, its videos ended up being cropped and used to add fuel to the fire – specifically, the part about a “Muslim” student offering a prayer next to the “nation”.

Students have been protesting against the teachers’ suspension

On February 20, right-wing outfits under the banner of Sarva Hindu Samaj submitted a memorandum to Education Minister Madan Dilawar, alleging “love jihad”, “religious conversion” and “Islamic jihadi” activities at the school. They alleged that through inducements, the Muslim teachers had made Hindu students offer namaz in school.

They also pointed out that in the 2019 admission form of a girl student, her religion was written as “Islam”, which they claimed suggested a larger conspiracy backed by the Pakistani outfit “Dawat-e-Islami” and the now banned Popular Front of India.

Moving swiftly, the Education Department issued suspension orders of teachers Firoj Khan and Mirza Mujahid on February 22 and of Shabana on February 24.

“In the Transfer Certificate of a Hindu girl, her religion was identified as Islam though she is Hindu. There is a conspiracy of religious conversion, love jihad, and Hindu girls are forcefully being made to offer namaz. As soon as it came to my notice, I made up my mind to take strict action against all three teachers. I have sent them to Bikaner. I will get a detailed investigation done and take strict action against them. If it calls for expelling them, I will do that too,” Dilawar said. Sangod and Bikaner are about 540 kilometres apart.

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In the village – from the teachers in the school to the local Education Department officials – claims of such a conspiracy are denied.

“I have been here three years and I have seen nothing like this in the school at all,” said principal Bairwa. “There have been no religious conversion attempts or offering of namaz on the premises.”

While Firoj was a Level 1 teacher and taught Hindi, mathematics, etc to classes 1-5, Mirza was a physical training instructor and Shabana a Level 2 teacher, teaching English to classes 6-8.

Like principal Bairwa, maths teacher Ravindra Kumar Verma told The Indian Express that the accusations are “baseless and concocted” and that “a village issue was shifted to the school unnecessarily”. Science teacher Surendra Kumar Meena called the allegations “nonsense”, while English teacher Suman Lata said “nothing like that has ever happened”.

The school management committee president, school development committee members, the local ward panch, and several teachers from the school have also written to the investigating officer at the Chief Block Education Office, Sangod, saying that no such conversion activities or namaz have taken place at the school. Some among them – having attended the Republic Day festivities at the school – also said there was nothing objectionable about the play.

A ‘human error’

In the 2019 admission form of a 14-year-old girl who took admission to class 10, the religion column had erroneously been marked as “Islam”. She cleared class 12 in 2022 and was issued a Transfer Certificate, with her character being noted as “excellent”.

On February 5 this year, she eloped with a Muslim boy from her village. The girl’s parents contacted the police, who contacted the school for her details. The school shared her admission form and other details with the police. Once the admission form reached the police and the family, it led to a controversy, with right-wing outfits claiming she ran away because the teachers had a role in brainwashing her. Moreover, a cropped January 26 video from the school play was cited to reinforce these claims.

The girl’s parents insist she has been kidnapped, and cite the school form to state that she has converted.

But the principal, the teachers, and Firoj Khan insist that the incorrect entry in the admission form was a human error and that all other school documents correctly identify her as a Hindu. “Ideally, the parents are supposed to fill up the admission form but they usually ask the teachers to fill them up,” said principal Bairwa.

“There were three girls with the same name that year. The other two were Muslim, and this one was Hindu, so it was a human error,” Firoj told The Indian Express. As per the admission form accessed by The Indian Express, the girl’s father had also signed it.

“The most important document in this case is the Scholar Register (SR), where her religion, caste and category have been correctly identified. Data once entered in the SR cannot be changed,” said the principal. The Transfer Certificate doesn’t have any column to specify religion but Minister Dilawar, in his statement, had said her religion had been incorrectly identified as Islam “in the TC”.

Firoj said that in his entire 32-year career in five schools, he has never faced such allegations or a police complaint. “It was a village matter which was diverted to the school. I am a Level 1 teacher teaching classes 1-5 and the girl took admission in Class 10 in 2019. I never even taught her. As for the boy she eloped with, I have never seen him, he never studied in the school, I never spoke to him or his family,” he said.

Shabana, another teacher who has been suspended, joined the school in October last year.

Kulvant Gaur, a local, echoed a prevailing sentiment among some in the village, “Why is it that the same girl whose religion was erroneously marked as Islam ran away with a Muslim boy?”

So far, Firoj has been questioned by seven-eight officials, including from the Education Department and the police.

As the controversy raged, the girl also issued an affidavit dated February 23 stating that it was she who had erroneously mentioned Islam in her affidavit “while my religion is Hindu”.

Although legally she’s still a Hindu, the family and some others in the village cite the admission form to claim that she has converted. The girl’s mother said, “We got to know about her conversion on 5th (of February). The police asked for her TC from the school where Islam was mentioned. She or the teachers never told us (about the conversion).”

The girl’s father said, “All three teachers were misleading us. It all (the conspiracy) began in the school.”

Heera Lal Jat, the SHO at Sangod police station, said, “An FIR under IPC section 366 (kidnapping, abducting or inducing woman to compel her marriage, etc) was filed earlier. However, the girl is an adult, and she said in her court statement that she has gone willingly. The investigation is on; I joined only yesterday.”

The grandmother of the man she eloped with told The Indian Express she has taken care of him since he was about a year old, following his parents’ divorce. “The police took away my husband and some others for questioning. The boy dressed up on the 5th saying he is going to a wedding function but I didn’t know he was planning to elope,” she said.

“I had told the girl’s parents about the affair – everyone in the village knew about it – and also told them to get her married to someone else. Her mother told me she is too young to be married. And now this has happened,” she said.

Yunus, another local whose son was among those picked up, alleged, “The police kept my son in the lock-up for two days and beat him up. The girl’s father is my childhood friend. I had spoken to him and warned him, but he paid no heed.”

A pushback

Since the suspension, several students have protested and taken out marches on multiple occasions, stating that the allegations are false and demanding that the suspension of teachers be revoked.

However, some students also claimed they were forced to offer namaz, asked to wear a skull cap, and told not to go to temples.

Chief Block Education Office Ramavtar Rawal said, “We spoke to all staff and teachers, all of whom denied that any such activity took place there. We also randomly asked two-five students from each class between classes 8-12 about the allegations. Out of a total of 36 students we spoke to, three said the teachers asked them to offer namaz, that the physical training instructor is biased (against Hindus). Of the three, one student changed his version the next day, while one is related to the girl’s family. The kids will say whatever they’ve been tutored to say by their parents and family.”

“We haven’t come across any video of students being made to offer namaz on the school premises,” Rawal said.

The four-point questionnaire for the students by the investigating team of the Education Department asked whether the teachers pressure them for “religious conversion, love jihad and namaz” in or outside the school, whether there is a conspiracy to force them to offer namaz through inducements, and whether any teacher told them about Dawat-e-Islami.

“Firoj accepted that it was his fault in mistakenly entering Islam in the religion column, but there is no evidence of Firoj leading prayers,” Rawal said. He also said that his office had submitted its report on February 22, the same day Firoj and Mirza were suspended, and that the report may not have been considered before the decision to suspend the teachers was taken.