Thiruvananthapuram: Congress MP Shashi Tharoor called a Delhi University professor’s ‘mark jihad’ comments against the Kerala school board ‘ridiculous’ after a number of students from the southern state applied to DU universities for higher education and received decent grades.
‘This anti-Kerala bias must end now!’ Tharoor remarked, responding to remarks by Rakesh Kumar Pandey, a member of the RSS-affiliated teachers’ organisation, National Democratic Teachers’ Front, who hinted at a ‘conspiracy’ behind a large number of Kerala applicants.
According to Tharoor, using ‘jihad’ as a term for whatever trend one doesn’t like goes beyond all bounds. ‘Now a DU teacher has got attention by absurdly decrying #MarksJihad!’
Tharoor shared a link of a news report that included Pandey’s divisive statements on Twitter and said: ‘I’ve always decried the over-reliance on marks as the main criterion for DU admission, but this is ridiculous. If Jihad means a struggle (with yourself above all), the Kerala students scoring 100% have struggled against the odds to get to DU. Interview them first if you wish before letting them in, but don’t demonise their marks! This anti-Kerala bias must end now!’
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Pandey claimed in a statement released on Wednesday that the invasion of Kerala board pupils with pristine 100 percent marks was not unplanned. It alludes to something that has to be looked into and the strange influx of pupils from the Kerala board cannot be seen as usual. The majority of these students are not fluent in either Hindi or English. All of these pupils did not receive a perfect score in Class 11, according to Pandey, who described it as a ‘marks jihad.’
As per sources, the Delhi University (DU) put over 100 admissions of Kerala board students on hold due to confusion over their mark sheets, but the issue was rectified after administrators contacted the board in the southern state.
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