A post shared on social media claims that Mohan Yadav, the newly elected Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, had issued orders to private schools in the state, warning of stringent measures against dressing students in Santa Claus attire on Christmas day. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Madhya Pradesh CM Mohan Yadav issued new directives prohibiting private schools from dressing students in Santa Claus attire on Christmas day.
Fact: Madhya Pradesh CM Mohan Yadav did not issue any such new orders prohibiting private schools from dressing their students in Santa Claus attire on Christmas day. The District Education officer in Madhya Pradesh’s Shajapur had recently issued a notice to private schools, urging them to obtain parental consent before selecting students to pose as Santa Claus or participate in any other cultural programs during Christmas events. The directive did not, however, mandate private schools to entirely prohibit students from dressing as Santa Claus. Hence, the claim made in the post is False.
When we searched to check whether Madhya Pradesh CM Mohan Yadav had issued any such new orders prohibiting private schools from dressing students in Santa Claus attire on Christmas, we could not find any such notice on the official website or the official social media handles of the Madhya Pradesh government. If the Madhya Pradesh government had issued any such orders in the wake of Christmas, media would have prominently reported the same. However, we could not find any news article reporting such information.
On searching for further details, we found that Vivek Dubey, the District Education officer in Madhya Pradesh’s Shajapur district, issued a notice to all private schools, advising them to get written permission from parents before selecting students to pose as Santa Claus or participate in any other cultural programs during Christmas. Speaking to ANI, Vivek Dubey said, “The students selected by the school to take part in the program organised on the occasion of Christmas in the school or to pose as Santa Claus, Christmas tree, and any other characters, should be done only after getting written permission from their parents.”
Further, the Shajapur District Education Officer said, “Cultural programs are held in schools but the programs are a little religious, and children of other faiths are also assigned religious characters to play which is not as per their own religion. Most of the time such events are held harmoniously but sometimes it leads to disputes and complaints coming to us in which a lot of time is invested to resolve the issue.” These directions of Shajapur District Education Officer to the private schools were reported by several media houses. The directions did not, however, mandate private schools to entirely prohibit students from dressing as Santa Claus.
To sum it up, Madhya Pradesh CM Mohan Yadav did not issue any new orders prohibiting private schools from dressing their students in Santa Claus attire on Christmas.
