A section of parents and DMK cadres first pointed out that the questions seemed to allude to the DMK’s 2G travails.

One of these in the half-yearly test held in September asked students to choose from three options to this: ‘If he had taught his daughter the tactics of scientific corruption: a) She would have got punished; b) She would not have got punished; c) She would have been punished’.

The charge of “scientific corruption” had been made against DMK chief M Karunanidhi by the Sarkaria commission. His daughter Kanimozhi was held in the 2G case.

Students were asked to correct punctuation in the sentence ‘Maran said i have looted the nations wealth and so i can buy votes’. Dayanidhi Maran is a senior DMK leader.

In the January test, students were asked to convert into indirect speech this sentence: ‘He said to the Tamilians, ‘If you throw me into the sea, I will swim to the shore and continue cheating you’.’ Karunanidhi is well-known to have said, “If you throw me into the sea, I will become a catamaran on which the people can continue their voyage.”

Principal Father Jacob Chungath said they came to know of the questions only after parents raised them yesterday and that an external agency had been hired to set the papers. “I agree that the questions were very offensive... This should not have happened.”