Jaleel targets IUML Ministers over language gaffes
Higher Education Minister and Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] leader K.T. Jaleel has challenged the Kerala State Commission for Protection of Child Rights to
Higher Education Minister and Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] leader K.T. Jaleel has challenged the Kerala State Commission for Protection of Child Rights to proceed with legal action against him over the Mannarkkad controversy, saying he would not seek anticipatory bail. The commission has registered a suo motu case against Dr. Jaleel after a video of his interaction with students at a felicitation programme for SSLC and Plus Two toppers at Mannarkkad went viral. Critics alleged that he publicly insulted students after he was seen holding a child’s ear. Rejecting the allegations, Dr. Jaleel said he had neither hurt the student nor intended to humiliate him.
He said the gesture was only a light-hearted act by a teacher and that the student himself had not felt offended. ‘Ready to apologise’ “I have not pinched the child or caused any pain. If any student or parent who attended the programme felt insulted, I am ready to apologise a hundred times,” he said. Jaleel, who taught at PSMO College, Tirurangadi, for over 12 years, said his remarks were made in the manner of a teacher interacting with students. He said he had raised concerns over students’ limited reading habits, particularly their lack of exposure to Malayalam literature. “Students themselves said they did not feel insulted.
Many students today have limited reading habits and are mostly confined to textbooks. It was in this context that I spoke to them,” he said. Responding to criticism over the quality of students and allegations of declining educational standards, Dr. Jaleel said language mistakes were common among both children and adults and should not be linked to students who studied during the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government’s tenure. “A narrative is now being created that such mistakes among children are because they studied in schools during the Pinarayi Vijayan government. Such mistakes have occurred among children and adults at all times,” he said. Slams IUML Jaleel then turned his criticism towards Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) leaders, citing language errors made by senior politicians.
Referring to Industries Minister P.K. Kunhalikutty’s reported spelling of “Kerala” as “Karalam”, he asked whether Mr. Kunhalikutty had studied in schools during the Pinarayi Vijayan government’s period. He also targeted Education Minister N. Samsudheen over an alleged error in pronouncing numerical figures, asking whether he was a product of Kerala’s public education system during the last decade. Jaleel also referred to Public Works Minister P.K. Basheer and his reported use of phrases such as “maya, kuyi, puya...” while arguing that language slips are not limited to students.
The BriefWire