A principal of a government school and a shiksha mitra have been booked in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh after a video of students reciting legendary poet Muhammad Iqbal’s “Lab Pe Aati Hai Dua” poem during the morning assembly went viral.
The Education Department has also suspended school principal Nahid Siddiqui and ordered a probe against shiksha mitra Wazeeruddi, Indian Express reported.
The FIR was registered at Fareedpur police station on a complaint lodged by a local leader of Hindu militant group Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Sompal Singh Rathore, who alleged that a “religious prayer” was recited at the government school in a bid to convert the students.
“Lab Pe Aati Hai Dua”, also known as “Bachche Ki Dua”, is an Urdu language dua, or prayer, in verse form authored by Muhammad Iqbal in 1902. The poem has been set to music and sung in morning school assembly almost universally in Pakistan, and in Urdu-medium schools in India.
“A prayer was being recited which said something like, ‘Allah ibadat karna’. This is not the stipulated prayer, and hence school principal Nahid Siddiqui has been suspended. I have also ordered a probe against the shiksha mitra,” Indian Express quotes Basic Shiksha Adhikari (BSA), Bareilly, Vinay Kumar as saying.
