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'This is what Galgotias teaches': Omar Abdullah slams University amid RoboDog row
The controversy erupted after the university displayed the RoboDog at a public event, where it was presented as an in-house innovation.
Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah took a jibe at the ongoing row over the display of a "Chinese" RoboDog by Galgotias University at the AI Impact Summit.
Taking to X, the J&K CM asked if Galgotias teaches its students “to copy someone else’s work and claim it as your own.”
“When you get caught you don’t own up & apologise, instead you 6 & 9 to make excuses. When that doesn’t work you throw an employee under the bus & blame them for everything to save your own skin,” Abdullah wrote in the social media post.
The controversy erupted after the university displayed the RoboDog at a public event, where it was presented as an in-house innovation. The institution later issued an apology, stating that the faculty member who introduced the robot was not fully aware of its technical background.
Abdullah further said, “Thank heavens this wasn’t the education I received.”
In a separate post on X, he took a jibe at Neha Singh's defence of the display of Chinese robot, saying, “Your 6 is my 9. I have to remember to use that somewhere.”
University says professor was ‘ill-informed’
On Wednesday, Professor Neha Singh, instead of issuing an apology, said her remarks were not clearly articulated and expressed regret over how they were interpreted.
“I could have been more eloquent. I could have been more articulate. Because of the euphoria and rush, things went a little hither-thither, which was never the intention. The branding has not been changed,” she said.
She also called the episode as a matter of interpretation, saying, “You’re maintaining your six, somebody else’s nine — that’s what happened.”
In a statement later on Wednesday, the Greater Noida-based university said Professor Neha Singh had provided “factually incorrect information” in her “enthusiasm of being on camera”.
The university described her as “ill-informed” about the product’s origins and sought to distance itself from the remarks made during the presentation.
Has Neha Singh been fired?
So far, there has been no official confirmation from Galgotias University that Neha Singh has been terminated or asked to resign.
The speculation on social media started after her LinkedIn profile reflected that she is “open to work”.
According to her profile, Singh joined Galgotias University in November 2023 as a faculty member in Communications at the School of Management.
Before that, she worked as an Assistant Professor at Sharda University and served as a Verbal Ability mentor at Career Launcher. She previously held a position at GITAM, completed her MBA from Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya in 2006 and earned a B.Com degree from the University of Allahabad.
However, neither Singh nor the university has publicly stated that she has been fired. The LinkedIn update alone does not confirm any change in her employment status.
Professor takes ‘accountability’
In her response to the controversy, Neha Singh said it was never her intention to claim the robodog as indigenously developed.
“The controversy happened because things may not have been expressed clearly,” she told Hindustan Times.
“I take accountability that perhaps I did not communicate it properly, as it was done with a lot of energy and enthusiasm and very quickly, so I may not have come across as eloquently as I usually do.”
She also remarked that the issue was one of perspective, saying, “Your six, my nine… it’s about perspective.”
