Karnataka professor forced to kneel and apologise for anti-war social media post

A college professor in an engineering university in Karnataka was forced to kneel down and apologise for praising Prime Minister Imran Khan on Sunday.

The incident took place at the BLDE Engineering Collage in Vijayapura district of Karnataka. The professor, Sandeep Wathar, had written a blog on Facebook, praising Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan for releasing Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman.

He had accused the BJP government of creating a war-like situation in the country in his Facebook post. Wathar was later made to delete the post in which he had criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi and even called Pakistan an intelligent nation, The Times of India reported.

Agitated over his social media blog, ABVP activists, in a video that has gone viral on social media, forced Wathar to apologise and kneel down with his hands folded, while also demanding his resignation. According to the reports, the professor was asked by the college management to apologise as ABVP activists began a demonstration.

The protesting ABVP workers reportedly even made Wathar promise that he would not post such comments on social media again.

The college authorities, on the hand, have decided to meet on Tuesday to look into the matter and take appropriate action, The Times of India report said.

ABVP Karnataka, however, tweeted in response to the video of the incident shared by journalist Samar Harlarnkar and said that the lecturer gave an “anti-national” statement which was condemned by the student community.

However, the police refused to look into the incident as the professor did not lodge any complaint with them.