BHU: VC downplays the incident, commissioner blames Uni for mishandling the situation

Nitin Gokarn, Varanasi Divisional Commissioner has blamed the BHU administration for violence on the protesting girl students in the University in his preliminary report submitted to Chief Secretary Rajiv Kumar, news agencies reported. Gokarn, in his report, said, “the university administration did not deal with the complaint filed by the victim in a sensitive manner and it failed to handle the situation on time.” Gokarn’s report was submitted a day after an FIR was lodged against 1000 unidentified students of the university for allegedly attacking a police team and indulging in violence.

Varanasi district administration also ordered a magisterial inquiry into the incidents of the past four days, including the lathi-charge on students. Tension has escalated in BHU since the lathi-charge on students at the hands of the police on Saturday.

Meanwhile, BHU Vice-Chancellor Girish Chandra Tripathi has denied that the students were lathicharged in the campus.

The Vice-Chancellor of Banaras Hindu University downplayed the incident of sexual harassment of a girl in the campus, which led to a massive protest in the University campus and after the controversial lathi charge on the protesting girls by the state police, the protest spread in almost all major cities of the country.

Talking to NDTV , the University’s VC Girish Chandra Tripathi termed the incident “a simple case of eve teasing” and later went on to allege that the incident was “deliberately staged” right before Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Varanasi.

“This was not a case of molestation, this was a simple case of eve teasing that was deliberately staged a day before the Prime Minister’s visit,” he said. The protest, which led to a nationwide unrest after the protestors were lathicharged by the state police, was downplayed by Tripathy as a “protest over a minor incident.”

The Vice Chancellor has been criticised for not acting on the complaint by girl students and going for victim-shaming instead.

Calling it ‘impossible’ to have at par security for boys and girls, the VC told The Indian Express; “security for boys and girls can never be at par. If we are going to listen to every demand of every girl we won’t be able to run the university. All these rules are for their safety, all in favour of the girl students.”

The VC further called the protest “a planned event” as he believed that “this issue was created by outsiders”. “The students,” the VC added, “should have suggested to the university to do something if they had any grievance or complaint.”

The VC, however, had no answer to a question NDTV asked; “what did the Proctor do once the matter was brought to him?” The protesting students allege that the Proctor’s reply was, “Tum rape karwaogi kya jo itne raat to ghoom rahi ho.” (Do you wish to be raped by wandering around the campus late in the evening?)

In the meantime, the BHU administration has decided to conduct a judicial inquiry into the incident.

The investigation would be conducted by a team headed by VK Dixit, a retired judge of the Allahabad High Court.

Tension prevailed at the BHU campus on Sunday after an agitation by woman students, protesting molestation of a student, turned violent late on Saturday when police used force to disperse the protesters.

Additional police force was deployed at the campus as a precautionary measure after police carried out a baton-charge and fired in the air on Saturday night and the students threw stones in retaliation.

Officials linked to the BHU administration said that 65 more sensitive areas on the campus have been identified where CCTV cameras would be installed. In the first phase, the CCTV cameras would be installed at the entrance of the campus and outside the women's hostel. Women are also being included in security.

Arrangements would be made for preventing the entry of vehicles on the routes surrounding the women’s hostel. The street lights would be fixed and new street lights installed on the campus.

A well organised security plan is being formulated in which the senior students would be included for suggestions. It has been decided to include the representatives of female students in it.