Principal stops students from chanting 'Gayatri Mantra' during MP school assembly; inquiry ordered

Rajgarh (Madhya Pradesh) [India], July 27 (ANI): Madhya Pradesh school education department authorities have ordered an enquiry into an alleged incident in which a principal posted at a 'CM Rise School' in Madhya Pradesh’s Rajgarh district, stopped the students from chanting 'Gayatri Mantra' during morning assembly. 
The incident took place at the school situated in Biaora town of the district on Wednesday morning. 
The principal stated that it is a government school and activities promoting any religion were not allowed on the school premises. 
A video of the incident was recorded by one of the teachers and was shared on social media platforms, prompting authorities to launch a probe. 
Taking cognizance of the matter, Minister of State for School Education (independent charge) Inder Singh Parmar on Thursday ordered an inquiry into the same. 
“An inquiry has been ordered into the matter. This type of act will not be tolerated. Education will be imparted in all the schools according to Indian culture and tradition, it has been said in the new education policy. Saraswati Vandana is mandatory in all the schools and is also being followed,” Parmar said. 
"SDM will investigate the matter and submit a report soon," the minister added. 
The school principal, identified as Dushyant Rana, however, said on Wednesday, “Since it is a government school, any kind of religious activity is banned here. In this context, we had a meeting on Tuesday in which it was decided that only the national anthem, national song and an inspirational song would be sung during the morning school assembly. But the children were instigated by our three teachers Harish Saxena, Bajrang Jangde and Nutan Dubey, and students were purposefully made to chant prayers that we had decided to stop earlier.” 
“Gayatri Mantra, Mahamrityunjaya Jaap and also there were three-four verses which are related to Hinduism. I said that no particular religion can be promoted in government schools in such a way. But the teachers did not listen to me and instigated the children to do all those prayers. They also started the prayer before time so that I could not get to know about it,” he added. (ANI)