College Professor Applies for Leave Saying Maharashtra Politics Made Him ‘Sick’

Anyone who was following Maharashtra’s political happenings over the weekend will know that it’s been a pretty tumultuous turn of events. In a popcorn-worthy twist that is more Game of Thrones-meets-Ekta Kapoor than an average day in Indian politics, the situation was marred by betrayal, confusion and absolute chaos.

This is what the recent events around the outcome of Maharashtra elections looked like: Three pivotal political parties the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), the Shiv Sena and the Indian National Congress—were about to make a coalition government in the state that had been under President’s Rule since no party won a majority of seats during the state elections held on October 21. But at the last moment, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) announced that Devendra Fadnavis would return for a second term as Chief Minister, along with the support of NCP leader Ajit Pawar, who turned on his uncle Sharad Pawar and pledged his allegiance to BJP.

There were allegations of signatures of attendance being allegedly misused as signs of swearing one’s oath, and a family backstabbing of epic proportions. Now, the NCP, Congress and Shiv Sena have moved the Supreme Court, challenging the decision of governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari for inviting BJP to take the oath in the late hours of Friday night.

But while all of this unravelled, one English college professor in Maharashtra was so shook, he applied for leave because he “fell sick” from watching it all unfold.

Zaheer Syed, who teaches at a college in the city of Gadchandur in Maharashtra, told PTI, “I fell sick and went into shock in the morning after watching the news about the unfolding political drama in the state.” The professor applied for his leave in an application written in Marathi that has now gone viral on social media. In the letter, he stated, “I have been completely shaken by the political earthquake in Maharashtra today.” However, he was denied the leave by the college principal.

The professor is an accurate representation of facepalm-worthy emotions that Indian politics evoke. But just like the rest of us, this professor, too, needs a crash course on what to do when the going gets tough, instead of doing what most of us would do and that is simply hiding under our covers.

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