EFLU Struggle Committee, a federation of students’ organisations at the English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU), disputed Vice-Chancellor Sunaina Singh’s version of research scholar Mudasir Kamran’s suicide early in March.
The committee said the V-C had wrongly held the complaining student wholly responsible for involving police in the case.
Referring to the V-C’s interview published in these columns on Sunday, the committee alleged that the administration’s mishandling of the issue had led to the suicide.
The Proctor had ignored the punitive/disciplinary measures suggested in the university ordinance against erring students, the committee argued.
The complaining student had written several times to the authorities since January 22, but instead of resolving the problems internally, the Proctor chose to involve police in the case.
‘Insecurity’
Mudasir’s response to the complaints expressed his severe sense of insecurity, but they were suppressed by the administration, the committee alleged.
The Proctor and other members of the faculty were informed of Mr. Kamran’s condition, which needed proactive help in the form of family or medical intervention, yet the matter was allowed to escalate to a police complaint, driving an already depressed person to suicide, the committee maintained.
“The V-C seems to be ignorant of the fact that the Proctor accompanied the complainant to the police station and was personally involved in the filing of the complaint,” it said.
Contest VC’s claims
The committee also contested the V-C’s observation that students had been planting stories in the media.
More than 200 students participated in the agitations, and protests continued for an entire month and did not subside in four days as was quoted. Students were forced to drop out of the protests following the V-C’s threats of calling in police and cancellation of the ongoing semester, it alleged. Police also compiled a list of 18 students and faculty members as “students who are staging protests and professors who are backing these protests”.
The administration had also filed multiple criminal cases against nine of these students with the Osmania University Police Station, the committee maintained. Despite students requesting the authorities for remedial classes, no steps were taken. Also, the German Department’s problem lies in its casteist and discriminatory treatment of students from marginalised communities, the committee alleged.
