A popular private school in Bangalore has sent an email to all its alumni asking for them to go on to Google maps and change the name of Gyanvapi mosque to “Gyanvapi temple.”
The New Horizon Public School (NHPS) had sent this mass email to its alumni on 20 May, Friday evening. The Quint has accessed a copy of the mail.
“You are requested to do it and ask our Hindu brothers and sisters to do it till google update this changes,” the mail reads.
The mail, titled ‘Gyanvapi temple instead of gyanvapi mosque’, also has a list of directions the alumni have been asked to follow in order to change the name of the Gyanvapi mosque. The mail comes at a time when there is a heated controversy and an ongoing court case surrounding the Gyanvapi mosque in Uttar Pradesh’s Varanasi.
Speaking to The Quint, many of the school’s alumni expressed shock on receiving the email, but also alleged that this is in line with the “overt political and ideological positioning” adopted by the school in the recent years.
The New Horizon educational group had earlier donated to the Ram Mandir Trust, held a bhoomi poojan ceremony in the school on occasion of the Ram Mandir groundbreaking, and also made its staff mandatorily attend a screening of The Kashmir Files.
After the school received backlash from some alums over the Gyanvapi email, the NHPS subsequently put out a statement on its Instagram page addressing the issue. The statement said: “We wish to clarify that the email was sent without proper screening procedures that is required for all our email communications.”
Mandatory ‘Kashmir Files’ Screening By School
The New Horizon Educational Institute is a private group which comprises of multiple educational institutions—the NHPS school, the NH Pre University College, two NH undergraduate colleges, and one NH Engineering college—all based in Bangalore.
The New Horizon Educational Institute had rolled out a memo in March this year, informing all its students that it is organising tickets for the movie The Kashmir Files “for all students and staff members.”
“It is mandatory for all staff members to attend,” a post put out by the NHPS on its Instagram page said.
The same post was shared on the Instagram and Linkedin pages of the other four degree colleges part of the New Horizon group.
In the comment section of the posts, comments can be seen by several students and alumni questioning why the screening has been made mandatory for the staff.
[“source=thequint”]
