KASARGOD: A mime show themed on Palestine by students of Kumbla Government Higher Secondary School caused tension in Kumbla on Saturday after a couple of teachers abruptly ended the show when it was staged on Friday, triggering a series of events that ended in General Education Minister V Sivankutty ordering an enquiry into the incident and assuring that the mime will be staged again.
District Collector K Inbasekar also ordered an enquiry into the incident.
The Kumbla Government Higher Secondary School conducted a two-day art festival on Friday and Saturday. The last event of the day on Friday was a ten-minute mime by higher secondary students.
Three minutes into the mime, the teachers hurriedly pulled down the curtains of the stage, disappointing the students.
The mime was based on the conflict in Palestine and the human misery in the country. Disappointed students raised slogans with a Palestine flag and the teachers cancelled the second day of the art festival scheduled for Saturday.
However, tension prevailed on school premises on Saturday with students federations like SFI, MSF staging a protest. Police had to intervene after the protesters held the headmistress on siege when the school called for a parent teachers meeting.
"If the teachers had any issues with the mime, they should have stopped at the rehearsal stage itself," said Irshad Chacko, branch secretary of DFYI, Kumbla unit, demanding action against the teachers involved.
Chacko said that the play was abruptly stopped by teachers when one of the mime performers displayed a picture of a child killed in Israel bombing. The waving of Palestine flags and slogans in solidarity with Palestine happened only after the play was stopped, he said.
The protesters demanded action against the teachers who stopped the mime show abruptly. The police had to clear the protesters from the school premises. The school authorities convened a PTA meeting on Saturday to discuss the issue.
"We realised that there was no fault with the students who performed the mime. We have decided to write to education department officials seeking action against the teachers and to resume the art festival on Monday," said PTA president A K Arif.
The school headmistress Sindhu informed mediapersons that an investigation would be conducted into the incident. Manjeshwar MLA A K M Ashraf also held discussion with the school management. He told mediapersons that it was wrong to obstruct the students from expressing their views.
He demanded the Director of Public Education and Deputy Director of Education in Kasaragod to take action against the teachers. District collector K Inbasekar directed the DDE to investigate and submit a report on Kumbla School Art festival.
Meanwhile, Minister Sivankutty announced that he had taken note of the incident and demanded an urgent report from education department officials. Posting on social media, the minister said that Kerala has made its stand clear on the Palestine issue and these incidents should not be repeated.
The minister has also assured the students that the art festival will happen and the mime will be staged again.