School kids take Modi test

AHMEDABAD: As if the billboards and advertisements on the back of city buses did not adulate chief minister Narendra Modi enough, now it was the turn of the Gujarat board. He featured in the question asked in the lower English paper of the class XII, Gujarati medium, exam conducted on Thursday.
Students taking the exam were surprised when a grammar question on comparative degrees made a mention of chief minister Modi.Question number 18 in section A of set 013 (E) asked the students to rewrite the statement: "Mr Modi is one of the most popular chief ministers of the country", in the positive degree.
The correct answer to this would be "Mr Modi is a very popular chief minister in the country", but the idea itself has caused a flutter. "This was the first thing my son mentioned to me when I asked him how his paper was. We don't doubt Modi's popularity, but featuring him in an exam paper certainly upsets me.
It seems like an advertisement," said Ashok Shrimali, a parent. Gaurang Trivedi, an English teacher in Swastik English School said, "If you look at it grammatically, there is nothing wrong.But they could have taken any other subject, why Modi?"
He added, "Teachers who set the question papers for the board were given clear instructions that the paper should be set in a manner that no religious sentiments should be hurt, no question should glorify any person, event or political party. This question has come as a surprise after these instructions."
Human rights activist Fr Cedric Prakash, who has been campaigning for correcting Gujarat's school textbooks, said, "This is ridiculous. All that students get out of this is subjectivity, biased and a partial approach. The Gujarat High Court should take notice of this and take strong action against it." Board chairman R K Pathak could not be reached for comments.