BHU Vice Chancellor Girish Chandra Tripathi, has courted another controversy by mocking the molestation of one of the female students that triggered a large-scale violence on the campus last weekend.
The violence on the campus had erupted as girls protested against the shaming of one of their friends by the university administration. The midnight police crackdown left many girls, professors and even journalists injured.
Tripathi visited the Triveni Girls Hostel on Wednesday understandably to meet the angry girls. The molestation victim shamed by the university administration lived in Triveni Hostel.
Far from listening to the girls’ grievances, Tripathi remained dismissive of their demands and blamed the molestation victim and her friends for raising their voices over the incident of sexual assault by men.
As girls tried to make their point before the VC by invoking religion and justice, an arrogant Tripathi thundered, “Only those who themselves practice the religion have the right to talk about religion. Tell me if the girls who took a girl’s dignity to the market followed their religion? (You can watch the video below)”
The VC’s arrogance was secretly captured by a female student present there. As Tripathi, the girl recording the video kept repeating, ‘jhoot bol raha hai (He’s lying).”
Tripathi was busy putting his shameful arrogance on display on the day the university’s chief proctor, Professor ON Singh, resigned from his post on ‘moral ground.’
The molestation victim had alleged that the three bike-borne men had inserted their hands inside the her shirt and even tried to unzip her trouser. When she complained about the incident to the university, they blamed her for being out so late in the evening.
The university has curfew hours only meant for girls preventing them from staying out after 6 PM, while boys have no such restrictions. There are also ban imposed on the non-veg consumption for girls. Once again, this rule doesn’t apply to boys staying in the hostel within the campus.
Tripathi’s term ends on 30 November. There were reports that the HRD ministry headed by Prakash Javdekar may asked him to on leave. However, Tripathi denied these reports adding that he would prefer to resign than go on long leave.
“So far, nothing of this sort has been communicated to me. I have been in touch with the HRD Minister (Prakash Javadekar) right from the day of the incident and have briefed him about the situation as well as the measures taken. But if am I asked to go on leave, I will resign,” he told PTI.
The current turmoil on the campus is also being seen as an outcome of the saffronisation of education in the university allegedly by the RSS. Tripathi himself is widely perceived to be an RSS appointee. Many analysts have argued that what happened in BHU last weekend was the outburst of anger by girls, who’ve long been forced to live like second-class citizens in the name of enforcing militant Hindutva ideology.