"Everyone Uses Words Like...": Karnataka Minister On Teacher's "Kasab" Jibe At Student
NDTV
BJP leader and Education Minister BC Nagesh says teacher shouldn't have made the remark, "but now it's just being politicised, pandering to a vote bank"
A day after a college teacher in Karnataka was suspended after he compared a Muslim student with a terrorist, the Education Minister of the BJP-ruled state has said it's "not a big issue". "Almost everyone uses words like 'Ravan' or 'Shakuni' every day. Even in the assembly, many times we've spoken like this. It doesn't become an issue," Minister BC Nagesh told reporters.
"Why does it become an issue when someone speaks about Kasab?" he added. Ajmal Kasab, the lone Pakistani terrorist captured after the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, was executed in 2012.
In last week's incident at Manipal Institute of Technology, a private institution in Udupi, a professor had reportedly asked a student his name and, upon hearing a Muslim name, had blurted: "Oh, you are like Kasab!" When the student objected, he apologised. The video went viral over the weekend.
The minister said the teacher shouldn't have made the remark, "but now it's just being politicised, pandering to a vote bank".
