In Islamophobic Remark, Delhi Prof Says Kerala Implementing 'Marks Jihad'

Delhi professor raised another Islamophobic bogey – ‘marks jihad’ – in Kerala.

(Photo: The News Minute)

A professor at Kirori Mal College in New Delhi and a leader of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)-backed teachers' organisation, National Democratic Teachers Front, has raised another Islamophobic bogey – ‘marks jihad’ in Kerala.

In a Facebook post, Rakesh Kumar Pandey, a professor of physics, alleged that the Kerala state board provided many students 100 percent marks and as a result, many students from the state had been over-admitted in some courses.

“A college had to admit 26 students in a course having 20 seats only because they all had 100 percent marks from the Kerala board. For last few years, Kerala board is implementing - #MarksJihad,” he wrote on Facebook.

Alleging a conspiracy behind these admissions, he said in a statement, "The invasion of Kerala board students with perfect 100 percent marks cannot be considered as unplanned.

It hints at something that must be investigated. There is no way that one can accept this inexplicable flow of students from the Kerala board as normal. Majority of these students are comfortable neither in Hindi nor in English. All these students do not have 100 percent marks in Class 11."

Allegations Without Proof

He also said that Delhi University (DU) should hold entrance examinations to stop the misuse of the ‘merit’ admissions based on Class 12 marks.

In another absurd blogpost he wrote in December 2020, Rakesh claimed there was “an explosion” in students from the Kerala board. In the post, he issued a warning that “measures were needed to foil any design to convert it into another Leftist hub”.

Without providing any proof, the professor went on to allege that Keralites had a role in Delhi riots and many funded by the Popular Front of India were looking to settle in Delhi.

Amid a large number of students from the Kerala board – many who had perfect scores – applying to DU colleges, an issue over their marksheets had arisen on Monday, leading the admission branch of the university to direct the colleges to put the admissions on hold. A majority of these admissions had taken place in north campus colleges, PTI reported.

The admission of over 100 students belonging to the Kerala board were put on hold by the DU. However, the matter was resolved after officials contacted the board in the southern state, PTI added.

"There was confusion when some students submitted mark sheets issued by the Directorate of Higher Education, Kerala. We asked the colleges to put the admissions of these students on hold. After we contacted officials from Kerala, we found out that it is an authentic board and is approved by the COBSE (Council of Boards of School Education in India). By 3 pm on Tuesday, we mailed the colleges, asking them to approve the admissions that were put on hold," the source told PTI.

Talking about the marking given by the Kerala board, the source said it gives the marks of Class 11 as well as Class 12 in the marksheets.

"A student has 92, 93 or 94 marks in Class 11 but 100 in Class 12. But since the DU has a rule that it will consider only Class 12 marks and not an average of the marks of Class 11 and Class 12, we are going by the Class 12 marks," he added.

According to data shared by DU, there are 4,824 applicants from the Kerala Board of Public Examination and most of them have scored perfect marks.

(Published in an arrangement with The News Minute.)