April 24, 2002	Wednesday	Safar 10, 1423

NEW DELHI, April 23: Students in Gujarat were shocked when their knowledge of English in an examination was tested with a passage about Nazism, a newspaper said on Tuesday.

One of the questions in the final school leaving examination asked students to form a single sentence from a four-sentence paragraph, the Asian Age newspaper reported.

“There are two solutions, one of them is the Nazi solution. If you don’t like people, kill them, segregate them. Then strut up and down. Proclaim that you are the salt of the earth,” the paragraph said.

Another question asked students to modify a sentence by removing the word “If” from the sentence: “If you don’t like people, kill them.”

Students and their parents were left wondering at the implication of the question as Gujarat has seen a frenzy of anti-Muslim violence since February.

Many of those taking the exam said they were distressed by the question.

One parent, who was not named, said it was “unpardonable” that such questions were used at a sensitive time.

“This question gave (my son) immense stress. Every day we hear stories of someone we know being stabbed or someone’s shop being looted,” he told the Asian Age.

Gujarat Education Minister Anandi Patel said the question paper was selected at random.—Reuters