The Rajasthan Education Department has formed a three-member committee to probe the farewell programme at Mahatma Gandhi Government School of Baran’s Shahabad area. Rajasthan has recently dropped Urdu as a subject in all its government schools. In this backdrop, the matter had snowballed, especially as Baran is home to Rajasthan Education Minister Madan Dilawar.  

The officials had visited the school recently to look into the issue. Sources said action will be taken against people found guilty in this matter.

The invitation card for the school’s farewell party for outgoing students of Class 12 had the Urdu words “Jashan e Alvida” written under a picture of the Goddess Saraswati. A section of parents and students had taken offence and the matter was reported to the Education Department.

School principal Vikesh Kumar said there were some Muslim students in the school and they had suggested this title for the function. Then, at the meeting of the School Development Management Committee, the parents had given their approval. Only after this, the invitation cards were printed, he said.

“However, after printing the cards, we realised that this name was not in accordance with the government language. Then we took back most of the cards. But some cards remained with the students, whose pictures later went viral,” he added.

The Rajasthan government’s move to replace Urdu with Sanskrit has made headlines recently. The government had contended that this is because it has been found many teaching the language have fake degrees – an allegation vehemently refuted by the Urdu Teachers’ Association.

The move came on the heels of the government ordering the “merger” of four Urdu-medium schools with bigger schools. 

Both moves had drawn a lot of criticism from the state’s Opposition Congress.