School teacher sacked for equating BSY, HDK with earthworms

Bengaluru: A faculty member of Mount Carmel English High School in Bengaluru was recently sacked after a question that he posed to class eight students of the school in Kannada language paper, equating Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy and BJP leader BS Yeddyurappa to earthworms went viral on social media.

The question, “Who is the friend of a farmer?”, carried three options – Earthworms, Kumaraswamy and Yeddyurappa.

Speaking to reporters, school principal Raghavendra said that the administration did not have knowledge of the question posed in the exam and that they have dismissed the faculty member responsible for setting the question paper.

Notably Yeddyurappa calls himself a “raitha bandhu” (farmers’ friend), while Kumaraswamy has often referred to himself as the farmers’ leader, as a means of wooing the state’s farming community. Kumaraswamy’s party, Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S), also depicts a female farmer on its green flag (symbolic of fields and the farming community).

The question in the examination, however, did not intend to promote any political party or ideology, the school administration asserted.