Fact Check: Did Kerala DME actually 'ban' Raksha Bandhan celebrations in medical colleges?

A little more than a month after Raksha Bandhan, a Hindu festival that celebrates the brother-sister relationship, a certain post started circulating all over social media. The content loosely said that Dr Ramla Beevi, Director of Medical Education, Kerala had banned celebrating the festival in all government-run medical colleges in the state because of COVID

The post was quick to create a lot of hue and cry among the social media users, who slammed Dr Beevi. It was also circulated with photographs of her, in which she donned a Hijab, with derogatory messages. This was picked up by a few websites and published as stories.

Was Raksha Bandhan really banned?

The source of this information is a notice by the Directorate of Medical Education, released on September 11. The notice's title loosely translates to 'About the celebration of Raksha Bandhan in medical colleges.' It talks about a particular incident, where the RSS had organised Raksha Bandhan celebrations without prior permission. "In this scenario, it has been decided that these celebrations can only be conducted in government medical colleges with prior permission from the institution head and the government authorities," it reads.

What is the DME saying?

We also reached out to Dr Beevi for a comment on the same. Slamming the allegations, she said that no groups are ever banned from conducting any celebrations. "Last year, there was a clash between two groups in a medical college during the Raksha Bandhan celebrations. Keeping that in mind, we have now asked the students to only seek prior permission. No one is banned from celebrating any festival," she says. She added that the same applies to any other celebration and that the circular isn't exclusive for Raksha Bandhan.