Politicians fight as parents wait for meeting

What was supposed to be a meeting between the management of the The Indiranagar Cambridge School and parents turned into a political slugfest between representatives of the BJP and the Congress on Wednesday. High drama unfolded with a number of parents walking out of the meeting as a result of the ruckus.

Tempers of parents simmered early on with the meeting scheduled for 11.30 am not starting even after two hours. Parents, education department officials and the management representatives were waiting for City Police Commissioner, M N Reddi, who came late.

As soon as they entered the school for the meeting, the bickering started between the BJP MP from Bangalore Central, P C Mohan, CV Raman Nagar BJP MLA, S Raghu, local corporator Sumitra Vijaykumar and local Congress leader P Ramesh.

Sai Kumar, whose daughter studies in Class 6, walked out of the meeting soon after. “While we were waiting for the meeting to begin, the politicians began to fight for a seat in the podium. No one is trying to solve any problem. There should have been no politician in the meeting,” he said.

Visibly disgusted, Aisha, another parent, said, “This should have been a meeting only between parents and the management. Who invited politicians? They should not be allowed to speak here,” she said.  

Interacting with reporters, P Ramesh said the BJP leaders asked him to leave the venue. “They want to take political mileage out of the situation,” he said.

Speaking with Deccan Herald, local MLA Raghu claimed that all the BJP representatives who had been present there had been invited by the police. “The parents had been waiting for a long time. So we demanded that the meeting begin without the Commissioner. While Mohan is the MP from Bangalore Central, I am the MLA from CV Raman Nagar and Sumitra is the local corporator and we were invited. The Congress representative came voluntarily. So, we asked him and others to leave,” he said.

When reporters asked Reddi why political leaders had come to the meeting, he said he did not want to comment on the matter. 

‘Political policing’

Early in the day, D Shashi Kumar, organising secretary, Karnataka State Private School Management Association, alleged that some members from the Congress youth wing were conducting an inspection of some schools in South Bangalore.

Sumanth Narayan, secretary, Shantiniketana School, Girinagar, claimed that people from the Congress had entered his school without any permission and started asking whether they had followed the safety measures.

“Around 20 to 25 people came at around 1 pm. When I asked them for permission from the government, they showed me an old circular. They said that they had conducted similar inspections in Vijaya Bharati School and Martin Luther School in the area,” he said.
DH News Service