A School Principal turned Barber!

The school principal, Father Frank Fernandes of St. Judes High School, Saki Naka, Mumbai turned out as a BARBER, practicing barbarism in the guise of maintaining norms. The class teacher told Pravesh Dubey, a student of Std. VIII on reaching the classroom in the morning of January 5, that the principal had taken his calendar and he would get it only if he trim his hair. Pravesh said that he had grown the hair for some spiritual purpose.

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When the boy went to meet the principal, the former told him how important was the long hair for the religious observance, which was to be performed in the Vindhyachal temple in the Dubeys’ native village in Uttar Pradesh. All his pleadings fell on deaf ears of the principal and the latter in a fit of ire nipped off the tussock. It is reported that the principal, also beat him up for featuring long hair. When Pravesh’s brother, Vivek inquired the principal about the incident, the latter said that it was against school’s norms.

Balled over by the incident, Pravesh’s family approached the police who were reluctant to register then. The discomfited Dubeys went about a Local Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader. To dissent this, few VHP activities along with the Dubeys, staged in front of the Saki Naka police station for detaining the principal. The police registered a case against the principal after four hours of protest and confined him.

ACP Narsingh Sherkhane of the Saki Naka division said, “We have detained the principal on charges of committing a deliberate and malicious act intended to outrage religious feelings (section 295-A) and voluntarily causing hurt (section 323) of the Indian Penal Code.”

This well-defined case plays off institutional discipline versus rules of demeanour. I agree that rules should be stringent but not to the extent of evoking savagery. Rules should be flexible when given an unfeigned reason. I guess all the wild principals got a deterrent example.