Following a backlash over an email sent to alumni on May 20 asking them to change the name of Gyanvapi Mosque on Google Maps to Gyanvapi Temple, New Horizon Public School in Bengaluru has issued a statement clarifying that the email was sent “without proper screening procedures.”
“We have received reports of the email sent out about disrespecting certain religious sentiments, and the matter is being handled with the utmost urgency.” We’d like to clarify that the email was sent without going through the proper screening procedures that all of our email communications must go through. We are proud of India’s cultural and religious diversity, and we practise it to the letter and spirit in everything we do at our school,” the school stated.
“Request to everyone,” read the email. Please mark the location as a Gyanvapi Temple rather than a Gyanvapi Mosque on Google Maps. You must do it and tell our Hindu brothers and sisters to do it until Google updates the changes. Please open the Google Maps application. If you look for Gyanvapi Temple, you’ll find Gyanvapi Mosque. Suggest edit by tapping or clicking on it. Change the name or other information to “Gyanvapi Temple” and mention “Hindu Temple.” send it in Masjid of Gyanvapi.”
On May 20, Preethi Krishnamoorthy, a Hawaii-based alumna, received the contentious email. She even used social media to call attention to the school’s “shocking” behaviour. “I was taken aback when I received the email, not because it was sent by my school, but because it was so extreme.” A school’s goal is to teach students to think critically so that they can grow up to be reasonable people who can distinguish between right and wrong based on the information they are given. “Any educational institution should be a place for free thought, not brainwashing current and future generations into mindless obedience,” she said.
The email was part of a series of alumni emails sent to students who had signed up. The school also sent an email during the release of ‘The Kashmir Files,’ according to Krishnamoorthy. The email included text encouraging alumni to see the film and comparing some of the movie’s incidents and characters to those in the Mahabharata. In the course of a year, only 3-4 newsletters are sent to students. The majority of the newsletters are about school events and meets.
An anonymous alumnus said the email regarding the Gyanvapi mosque controversy has upset her personally. “The first email about ‘The Kashmir Files’ was strange, and I thought it odd that a school would promote a film.” The second email regarding the mosque was extremely upsetting. After the azaan and halal controversies, I stopped reading the news, and now this incident has disturbed me even more. I’ve unsubscribed from your newsletter. After this incident, a lot of my school memories have been ruined. “I’m disappointed,” the alumnus expressed his disappointment.
The school’s management claimed that a fake WhatsApp group had been created and that the alleged letter was being circulated on various groups, according to officials at the Kothanur police station. Although the management is said to have approached the police, no case has yet been filed.
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