The Kerala government ordered a probe into the declaration of a holiday on Monday at a high school in Kasaragod district on account of the Prana Pratishtha ceremony in Ayodhya.
The CPI(M)-ruled state did not declare any holiday for government offices and educational institutions to mark the temple ceremony on January 22. However, Sri Gopalakrishna high school at Kudlu in Kasaragod declared a holiday for its students.
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Taking a serious note of it, General Education Minister V Sivankutty sought a report from the director general of public education. The minister, in his Facebook post, said the director general was told to submit a report within 24 hours on why the particular school had announced a holiday despite no official direction from the general education department.
The school at Kudlu is situated at Madhur panchayat, which is ruled by the BJP. Of the 20 wards in the panchayat, 13 are represented by the BJP.
Sources said the headmaster of the school was forced to declare a holiday on Monday due to the “pressure from the BJP-ruled panchayat and a section of parents” of the students. The school had sought a permission from the department for declaring a holiday on Monday, but the district-level authorities at the general education department had rejected the demand, said the sources.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had declined to observe the Pran Pratishtha ceremony as a state event. “As those who pledged to preserve and protect our Constitution, let us reaffirm our commitment to its secular character by declining to participate in the event and upholding our constitutional responsibilities,’’ he said.