A man invited as a guest speaker in a government school in Chennai humiliates and mocks a visually impaired teacher in front of students. School girls in Krishnagiri have been sexually abused at fake NCC training camps. A schoolgirl in Coimbatore is sexually harassed by an external resource person. What is happening in Tamil Nadu’s educational institutions?
Over the past month, Tamil Nadu has been rocked by a series of shocking incidents in educational institutions, both government and private. Some of these incidents have been criminal in nature and have left the victims mentally and emotionally scarred.
In the latest incident, Mahavishnu, who was invited as a guest speaker at two state government schools in Chennai to deliver motivational talks, ended up preaching irrational thoughts to the students. At the Government school in Saidapet, he was seeking to convince students that the sufferings of the present life is based on actions in the past life.
That’s when a visually impaired teacher Shankar confronted him questioning why he was preaching unscientific thoughts. Mahavishnu, however, ended up humiliating the teacher and even tried to turn the assembled students against him.
A video clip of this confrontation went viral triggering widespread outrage. Mahavishnu had first come to limelight as a teenage boy who participated in a stand-up comedy show on a Tamil television channel. A few years ago he established Paramporul Foundation, a spiritual organisation that also deals with products which promise magical remedies for various health disorders. He has since been arrested under various sections of the law including the Persons with Disabilities Act.
What were some of the other disturbing incidents on campuses in recent times? How has the government reacted?
Script and presentation: D. Suresh Kumar
Production: Shibu Narayan
Video: Johan Sathyadas
Published - September 12, 2024 09:32 pm IST
