Chief Minister Should Apologise For "Insulting" Me: Uttarakhand Principal

A government school principal in Uttarakhand who was turned away by the state's chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat, suspended and jailed last week after she went to him with her request for a transfer insists she wants the chief minister to apologise.

Uttara Bahuguna's remarks came after Uttarakhand Education Minister apologised to her on Saturday. "Why has the education minister apologised? He did not do anything. It was the chief minister's fault and he should have apologised. It was the chief minister who insulted me," Ms Bahuguna was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

Ms Bahuguna, 57, was suspended on charges of "disrupting an important gathering".

"I received a phone call from the Education Minister. He assured me that he will meet me on July 3 and will find a solution to my problem. He apologised when I told him about the injustice done to me by the Education Department," Ms Bahuguna said.

Since her husband's death three years ago, she has been fighting for a transfer from a remote location in Uttarakhand to state capital Dehradun, where her children live.

In the video, Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat is seen losing his temper and directing officials to "suspend her immediately. Arrest her".

Ms Bahuguna, who has been working for 25 years in Uttarkashi, went to meet Chief Minister Rawat in Dehradun. A widely-shared video showed the teacher screaming at the Chief Minister and shouting "thief, cheats" as she is led out of the meeting.

She was arrested on charges of "disrupting an important gathering". She was let off in the evening.

The teacher's son was not satisfied with the education minister's apology on Saturday and said it is the chief minister who should apologise.

"After watching the full video, people can now see that it's completely the CM's fault. He provoked my mother to behave the way she did. I don't think my mother has said anything wrong. Is this the way CM should talk during a public hearing? He should apologise," Shubham Bahugana said.

A Right to Information (RTI) query revealed that Chief Minister Rawat's wife, who is also a government school teacher, was transferred to Dehradun in 1996 and has never been transferred for the last 22 years.

(With inputs from ANI)