Savarkar Quiz Row: Kerala govt may take action against more teachers if found involved

Kerala Education Minister N Shamsudheen on Monday said disciplinary action will be taken against more teachers if they are found to be involved in the controversial answer in a quiz questionnaire that described Hindutva ideologue V D Savarkar as the freedom fighter "who received the maximum punishment at the hands of the British." Director General of General Education Snehil Kumar Singh on Sunday issued an order directing the immediate suspension of Guru Prasad, a teacher at Aided Upper Primary School (AUPS) Pallathadka in the Kumbla sub-district of Kasaragod, for preparing the questionnaire.

The school-level Social Science Club Freedom Quiz 2026 was conducted on August 6 for students in the Lower Primary, Upper Primary and High School sections under the Kumbla and Manjeshwar sub-districts. The Lower Primary section questionnaire contained 15 questions and five tie-breaker questions.

The fifth question asked, "Who is the freedom fighter who received the maximum punishment at the hands of the British?" and listed V D Savarkar as the answer, officials said. The question and answer triggered controversy and widespread protests, prompting education authorities to initiate an inquiry. "There are several co-curricular activities in the General Education Department. There are approved activities and an official calendar. This particular quiz competition does not fall under any of these. This was organised locally in connection with Independence Day," he said.

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Kerala quiz controversy

The minister said that whatever the activity may be, teachers and employees of the department should maintain discipline. "It is not right to use the schemes of the Education Department to implement one's personal interests without maintaining that discipline. So, there are certain disciplinary issues involved here. Likewise, it is clear that this was done for some very serious personal interests," he said. Shamsudheen said that when he received the information, he directed the Director General of Education and the Secretary to inquire into the matter. Upon investigation, a report was submitted identifying the person who did this, and he was suspended. "An investigation is still ongoing -- that is the standard process. The individual has been suspended pending investigation. Let the investigation report also come out; only then will a final decision be made," the minister said.

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Asked whether disciplinary action would be taken against other teachers, the minister said, prima facie, the allegation was against one teacher. "If anyone else was involved, or if others similarly tried to implement their interests and ideas to cause issues in the education sector, disciplinary action will be taken against them as well," he said. Asked whether the quiz had passed through Assistant Educational Officers (AEOs) and whether that indicated a lack of scrutiny by the Education Department, Shamsudheen said it was a local programme conducted within the AEO jurisdiction every year.

"It has been happening for the last few years. In any case, as I said, the department identified the person who prepared this question and provided such answers, and action has been taken against him pending investigation. If more people are involved, or if, as you mentioned, higher officials were negligent or complicit, action will certainly be taken against them too," he said. On the controversy over the Kerala Chief Secretary's circular directing the singing of the full version of 'Vande Mataram' on Independence Day, the minister said the matter had already been clarified by those concerned.

"When it is realised that there is a lapse or political motive behind it, it gets corrected. Here, the chief minister corrected it and clearly stated the facts. We don't need to post-mortem it further," he said. On reports of more ragging cases in schools, the minister said there were isolated incidents, but severe ragging generally occurred in colleges. "There is already an anti-ragging law in place regarding this. There is a proposal that it should be strengthened further and steps would be taken in that direction," he said.