Hindu Aikya Vedi state president Sasikala ‘teacher’ is no stranger to controversies, especially those involving her public speeches which are often alleged to be communal.
Days after Kasargod police booked her in a case accusing her of inciting communal tensions, KP Sasikala is facing flak for calling Vallapuzha the Pakistan of Palakkad district. Vallapuzha has a large number of Muslim residents.
Sasikala has been a social science teacher for the past 36 years at the Vallapuzha Higher Secondary School. On Friday, school children and their parents staged a protest against Sasikala, demanding that she should no longer teach there.
The protesters alleged that Sasikala teacher had insulted the school as well as Vallapuzha by her remarks.
Sasikala however, pointed out that the comment was made in a 2011 interview held in the US. Elaborating on the context of making the statement, Sasikala teacher told The News Minute that she had said so because the majority of residents in Vallapuzha are Muslims.
“The question posed to me by the anchor indicated that I was inherently anti-Muslim. It is then that I said that if there was a Pakistan in Palakkad, then it should be Vallapuzha. This was to prove that I'm not anti-Muslim. If I had been so, I wouldn't have been teaching at the school for so many years. Muslim community is the majority here (in Vallapuzha), like in Pakistan and Hindus are in a negligent number. Don’t we know that Pakistan is a country that was created for the Muslims? Then what is wrong with drawing comparison between the two places?” Sasikala said.
Saying that she stands by her comment, Sasikala teacher questioned the intent behind the “new uproar”.
“I don’t understand why people should consider my remarks degrading. The Pakistan I know is a place with majority of Muslim population. The Pakistan I know is not a bad place, then why should residents take offense to my statement?” Sasikala said.
She says that the new protest was politically motivated, as the DYFI staged a protest last week in this regard. She alleged that it was after the DYFI protest that more agitations were organized, including the protest by her own students and their parents. These were backed by the SDPI, she alleged.
“A year after I made the comment a DYFI leader had tried raking up the issue. But it did not gain much traction at the time. Now, after false news that I am joining the BJP, this is their new way of inciting communal violence in my hometown,” Sasikala teacher alleges.
She says she will not give in to the protests, as the speech “was made outside the school premises and does not interfere with academics”.