Three employees of the Salt Lake guest house have been arrested on the charge of discrimination against guests on religious grounds
Clarion India
NEW DELHI – Ten teachers of government-run madrasas were denied accommodation in a private guest house in Kolkata’s Salt Lake area on Monday. They had come from Malda to attend a meeting of The West Bengal Education Department at its headquarters in the state capital. Eight of them are headmasters at various madrasas in Malda.
Three employees of the CL 164 guest house have been arrested on the charge of discrimination against guests on religious grounds, PTI quoted a senior officer of the Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate as saying.
The teachers had prior bookings at the guest house. But, according reports published in Kolkata newspapers, when they arrived here in the morning, first they were made to wait for three hours, then after one hour of check-in they were told to leave rooms and go to another guest house which, too, denied them accommodation.
The teachers lodged a police complaint saying they were refused room because of their religion. The guest house owner denied the charge, saying it was just a misunderstanding.
Shikshak Oikyo Mukto Manch, an association of madrasa teachers in West Bengal, too, filed a separate police complaint.
The teachers told The Telegraph they had been “stunned” at hearing the reason for their expulsion. “We had come to Kolkata earlier too in connection with work and usually stay at such lodges. This time we had come after several months because of the lockdown. We have never faced any problem before…. It simply breaks our heart to think this could happen in Bengal,” said Mahbubur Rahman, headmaster of Alipur Madrasah Shiksha Kendra in Kaliachak, Malda.
The teachers were forced to take shelter under the East West Metro viaduct (the ground below the overhead tracks) near Bikash Bhavan amid the morning shower and left the city directly after the meeting.
