The head of the international relations (IR) department at Jadavpur University has written to the vice-chancellor that an assistant professor’s “response” to the allegation that she had attacked a PhD scholar because of her caste “is a complete suppression of facts”.
JU registrar Snehamanju Basu had sought an explanation from the assistant professor last month.
Iman Kalyan Lahiri, head of the IR department, has written to VC Suranjan Das: “The response given by the teacher is necessarily factually wrong because she used certain words like ‘quota’ in the presence of the PRC (PhD research committee) members and again used certain words, not constitutionally accepted.”
The letter says: “The response given by the teacher is a complete suppression of facts and the entire incident that happened in the PRC (PhD research committee) where all the PRC members were present….”
The department head has enclosed with the letter a copy of the resolution of the November 24 meeting of the board of studies. The teachers of the department had in the resolution sought action against the accused under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
Lahiri has written to the VC that “I feel university authorities must respect” the “unanimous” resolution of the board of studies.
When this newspaper asked Lahiri about the letter, he declined to comment.
Sources on the campus said the accused assistant professor had denied that she attacked the PhD scholar “on the basis of her caste identity”. In her defence, she has reportedly said the student herself did not lodge any complaint.
The assistant professor has also reportedly said that since the student had said she was pursuing PhD as a general category candidate, the allegation that she was attacked because of her caste was baseless.
Repeated calls and text messages from this newspaper to the assistant professor regarding her response failed to elicit any reply.
The student wrote on her Facebook page on October 19: “I belong to the Adivasi community of Assam. And after securing admission to a prestigious university like Jadavpur on my merit, it is highly disappointing and sad to hear such casteist and discriminatory comments in an academic space”.
VC Das said in a text message to this newspaper: “Since the matter is being addressed by the pro VC, he is going to respond.”
Pro VC Chiranjeeb Bhattacharya said in a text message: “With reference to your message addressed to vice-chancellor regarding a matter of IR department, the issue has been forwarded to SC/ST Cell of JU for consideration/perusal.”
The Telegraph had on October 18 reported that the student had requested the authorities that her superviser (the assistant professor) be changed because she felt her research was not progressing at the desired pace.
The PhD research committee, whose members include the department’s teachers, met in September to discuss the student’s plea. At that meeting, the assistant professor allegedly attacked the student referring to her caste.