Mumbai: The management of a private school in Ahmedabad has apologised after parents raised objections against its decision to make students write a message on postcards praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the recently passed Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
According to a report in the Indian Express, students from Classes V to X of the Little Star school were made to write postcards favouring the CAA law.
The postcard message read: “Congratulations. I, a citizen of India, congratulate honourable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi for CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act). I and my family support this act.”
The school management, according to the report, has since apologised and called the exercise a “misunderstanding”. The postcards were returned to the parents, who tore them up, the news report says.
The teachers in the all-girls school, affiliated to the Gujarat Secondary and Higher Education Board in the Kankaria area of Ahmedabad, wrote the congratulatory message on the blackboards and asked the students to copy them on postcards.
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The students were then asked to replicate the message on their respective postcards and send it to the “PMO, South Block secretariat building, Raisina Hills, New Delhi”, along with their residence address. The school has about 1,200 students enrolled from Nursery to Class 10.
Parents expressed outrage over this attempt to “politically exploit” their children.
“My daughter studies in Class VI. I got to know on Tuesday evening that her teacher had asked the entire class to write congratulatory messages in support of CAA to Modi. My child doesn’t understand the issue. She is being forced to be a part of it, which is unacceptable to us,” a parent reportedly told the Indian Express.
The school management, according to the new report has denied that they had conducted this exercise under the influence of any party.