Topper Muslim girl denied honour at Gujarat school award ceremony

India: In a case of deliberate discrimination based on religion, K.T. Patel Smriti Vidyalaya, a school located in Gujarat’s Nanakda town of Kheda district, 14 km from Ahmedabad, refused to honour its star student, simply because she happens to be a Muslim.

Arnaz Banu, topper in Class X with a score of 87 percent, naturally was too excited expecting to be called on stage at a function organised by her school to honour meritorious Class X and Class XII students on Independence Day. That was not to be.

The incident, too intentional to be ignored, has sparked a wave of discontent among activists and citizens on various social media platforms. In a tweet, writer and rights activist Salil Tripathi said: “This is the state of Modified India.”