In a video that is of the government college of postgraduate studies at Mandsaur, Madhya Pradesh, a senior professor of the college is seen apologizing by touching feet of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) workers after they threatened him with a police complaint.
Professor’s Gandhigiri
The man in the video, Professor Dinesh Gupta was taking a class when ABVP workers were going towards the principal’s office to submit a memorandum against the delay in the announcement of the fourth semester (Science) results. ABVP workers were sloganeering at that time. It was then Professor Gupta came out of his class and allegedly asked them to stop shouting slogans as it was becoming difficult to teach.
As reported by Indian Express, this enraged the protestors who then alleged that Gupta was stopping them from saying “Vande Mataram” and “Bharat Mata Ki Jai”. They termed him anti-national and allegedly threatened him with a police complaint, even pressurizing him to apologize. When the workers refused to relent, the professor chose the path of Gandhigiri. The video shows him asking them to first stand in a line, after which he started apologizing by falling at their feet. In the end, a fellow faculty pacified the teacher.
“I only want students to study & progress”
While speaking to media, Gupta said, “They are not students, they only engage in politics. Students kept calling me anti-national so I bowed down to them. I only want students to study and progress in their lives. I am not thinking about any action,” as reported by News18. The professor took leave after the incident.
Reacting on the issue, ABVP national executive member Ankit Garg said, “Whatever the senior faculty member did was an outcome of anger and irritation which he could have avoided,” adding that the ABVP workers should have not disrupted the classes.
Mandsaur MLA Yashpal Sisodiya said that the ABVP workers did not ask the professor to apologize but he fell at their feet on his own. He also added that he is looking into the case and if proven guilty he would ask them to apologize to the professor.
The Logical Indian take
This is not the first time that the ABVP workers have created a ruckus in a campus. Just a few months back, in a horrific and shameful incident, members of the ABVP assaulted a professor University in Gujarat, blackened his face and paraded him in the college for an alleged discrepancy in the university electoral rolls. Last year too, in protest of inviting Umar Khalid and Shehla Rashid at an event held at the Ramjas college, ABVP workers locked down the seminar hall and pelted stones at students.
Those who harass teachers are no less than goons who believe that they can threaten, assault and humiliate anybody and even get away with it. Their confidence is not misplaced though, given that these incidents are a common occurrence. Are the authorities so tied down that they can’t even protect their students’ and teachers’ dignity?
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