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Anonymous social media post alleges student sexually harassed by multiple Visva Bharati teachers
Vice-chancellor Bidyut Chakrabarty held a hunger strike for nine hours on the campus on Monday, condemning the social media campaign against the university.
Visva-Bharati, West Bengal’s only central university, is witnessing a stir over an anonymous social media post accusing several teachers of a specific department of sexually harassing a student for at least two years.
The university has completely denied the allegation and claimed that it is a malicious campaign against an institution of international repute. The prime minister is the chancellor of Visva-Bharati which was set up by Rabindranath Tagore in 1921.
The post surfaced on August 11. Someone claiming to be a female first-year post-graduate student wrote in a closed Facebook group, VB Confessions, that she has been “physically and mentally tortured by multiple teachers” of her department since she was in the second year of the three-year under-graduate course.
Written in Bengali, the post, a screenshot of which was seen by HT, said: “Coming to Visva-Bharati to study has turned into a curse for me. I am revealing this today because I cannot take the torture anymore. I am alive only because of my parents and my brother….”
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Since the content was reported by a section of the local vernacular media, the university authorities issued a press statement on August 13.
It said: “Visva-Bharati condemns the publication of a fabricated story based on an anonymous post in Facebook. Without ascertaining the authenticity of the post, the local newspapers printed the story which is an act of irresponsibility. The university never tolerates harassment and humiliation of any student and especially for our girl students, we take special care to protect their dignity and mental peace. This anonymous post is a fake one and the university has special mechanisms to deal with the cases of harassment if they are genuine. Visva-Bharati follows a zero-tolerance policy in this regard.”
Vice-chancellor Bidyut Chakrabarty held a hunger strike for nine hours on the campus on Monday, condemning the social media campaign against the university and publication of media reports.
On Monday evening, Kausik Bhattacharya, secretary of the Visva-Bharati Faculty Association, lodged an official complaint at the local Santiniketan police station against the vice-chancellor and two other officials. The complaint letter, a copy of which was seen by HT, accused the vice-chancellor of declaring the Facebook post as fake instead of referring the matter to the university’s internal complaint committee for investigation.
By holding the hunger strike, Chakrabarty tried to shield the guilty, the police complaint alleged.“We have received the complaint. The identity of the alleged victim is unknown. This poses a problem for an investigation,” a police officer from Birbhum district, where the institution is located, said on condition of anonymity.
Visva-Bharati spokesperson Mahua Banerjee said on Tuesday evening that no student had come forward with a complaint.“We still don’t know the identity of the person who wrote the Facebook post,” she said.
