The principal of Somaiya School, a private school in Mumbai, has allegedly asked its principal Parveen Shaikh to step down for ‘liking’ anti-Modi and pro-Hamas social media posts.
The issue gathered steam on April 24, after an online right-wing portal OpIndia carried news about her liking anti-India and Hamas terrorist sympathizing posts via her social media account on X (formerly twitter).
In their post on April 24, Op India’s social media handle on X posted: “Special liking for Hamas, Umar Khalid, ‘liking’ anti-Hindu Tweets and abusing PM Modi: Meet Parveen Shaikh, Principal of prestigious Somaiya School, Mumbai”. The post garnered over 141k views. What followed was a social media battle with some supporting her freedom of speech and the others calling her out for being ‘anti-national’.
According to the OpIndia story, among the posts that Shaikh has liked include one by Swara Bhasker, an actress supporting Umar Khalid a former research scholar at Jawaharlal Nehru University, who was arrested over his alleged involvement in a sedition row and a one stating “I am not from Palestine but as long as Palestine is not free, I’m a Palestinian,”.
Shaikh’s social media accounts have been made private recently. Meanwhile, some users on X urged the school to react following the incident. The school responded in an official statement on April 25, “We were unaware of the sentiments expressed until it was brought to our notice today. We do not agree with such sentiments. It is certainly concerning. We are looking into the matter.”
When contacted by EducationWorld, Parveen Shaikh said that she was “not asked to resign directly”. She said that the management called her to attend a meeting on April 26 that involved the HR and expressed their displeasure over her social media expressions. “I am on sick leave right now and will resume work on Monday,” she said, not responding to several other questions on her social media views.
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