Southern Notes: Sexual & cultural harassment in schools

The suspension of a male teacher in Chennai following allegations of online sexual harassment of girl students, appears to have opened the floodgates. Complaints are flowing in from students of other schools.

The incident in question, involving a teacher in the KK Nagar branch of the top Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan [PSBB] group of schools, where a male teacher was accused of appearing in an online class clad only in a towel, as well as asking other girl students to go out with him, was outed by a former alumni and model Kripali on her Instagram page.

It led to the school suspending the teacher, intervention by the school education minister and arrest and interrogation by the Chennai police. Reports surfaced of students from several other schools making similar allegations against male teachers in their schools, prompting a group of alumni to create a Google Forum to report cases of misbehaviour.

While this was going on, it opened up another can of worms: oppression of students of other castes by the dominant Tamil Brahmin culture in these schools – the PSBB is run by Tamil Iyengars. Online posts on Twitter and other social media pilloried the schools for their cultural insensitivity and exclusionary practices.

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Lockdown in Lakshadweep

The idyllic islands of Lakshadweep [formerly the Laccadive and Minicoy islands]. off the west coast of India and Kerala, are seldom in the news, so much so that many Indians may have never heard of them... unlike the Maldives, where a bevy of Bollywood beauties head regularly to soak up the sun and sand, and post pictures for their Instagram fans.

That may now be changing, due to the efforts of one man: Praful Khoda Patel, former home minister of Gujarat, and BJP’s points man in the islands as its Administrator, a job previously entrusted to the IAS and IPS. Patel has unveiled a slew of ‘reforms’ aimed at what he calls development of the island.

He also wants the islanders to sell off their cattle and get their milk from the mainland. Obviously, he is not doing this on his own; his remit is to open up the islands to tourism development on a mass scale, as articulated by the Niti Aayog’s CEO Amitabh Kant, never mind the consequences.

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‘Biryani’ minister

A Telangana citizen, upset with the chicken biryani he had ordered, took to Twitter to voice his complaint… but it was not addressed to the eatery or the online delivery partner; it instead tagged KT Rama Rao, the CM K Chandrasekhar Rao’s son and minister for municipal administration and urban development.

Thottakuri Raghupati’s tweet read: “I ordered chicken biryani with extra masala and leg piece, didn’t get any of them, is this the way to serve the people…” He deleted the tweet later, but not before the IT-savvy KTR, as he is known, responded: “And why am I tagged on this, brother? What did you expect me to do?” along with a confused emoji to boot.

The reply won thousands of likes and sparked a flood of comments. Netizens were quick off the block to answer him … one said, ‘leg piece, an essential part of the biryani, is missing, please help him;’ another wrote, ‘ he is expecting a CBI inquiry immediately;’

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Alipiri pathway to Tirumala closed for renovation

The Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanam [TTD] temple authorities have announced that the Alipiri footpath to the famous Balaji hill temple near Tirupati will be closed to the public from June 1 to July 31 to enable renovation work. TTD however said that the alternate Srivari Mettu footpath to climb the mountain would remain open.

Thousands of pilgrims, especially those who have made a vow, climb up the hill on foot to reach the temple, most of them using the Alipiri route, which is easier to negotiate than the Srivari Mettu, which is shorter but steeper.

The temple authorities have said buses will be available to transport the pilgrims to Srivari Mettu desiring to take the footpath. The famous temple is still open to devotees, though admission is regulated to a few thousands every day, on booking a slot through the website. Pilgrims are voluntarily staying away from a darshan of Lord Venkateswara due to Covid concerns.