As the Union government funded Kalakshetra Foundation is embroiled in sexual harassment allegations against several employees, staff and students allege that the director of the foundation, Revathi Ramachandran, has a history of mismanagement at the institution. Revathi, who has been accused of denying support to students who have complained against faculty members, worked hard to cover up a massive food poisoning outbreak at Kalakshetra back in November 2021. Not only did she deny proper healthcare for the students — several of whom were close to being hospitalised — she also forced students who raised their voice against the mismanagement to apologise. TNM is in possession of the apology letter that students were forced to write to the director, whose tenure is supposed to end on April 20 this year. Ten different sources within Kalakshetra have confirmed the incident to this reporter.
The incident dates back to November 20, 2021. Amidst heavy rains, the hostel residents of Kalakshetra Foundation had an early dinner of chapatis and channa around 5.30 pm, in their own rooms. The management had asked them to carry the food back because of the inclement weather. Within hours, several of them complained of nausea and stomach pains, with some of the students suffering from diarrhoea.
Soon, it was clear that there was an institution-wide case of food poisoning. One of the students who had to be rushed to a nearby hospital the next day, along with four other college mates, told TNM, “I began shivering and vomiting within hours of eating dinner. However, the hostel warden dismissed our discomfort and prescribed jeera water as a solution.”
“By morning, many of us were extremely sick. The warden took five of us — men and women — to a nearby hospital. A doctor diagnosed me with food poisoning. I had a temperature of 102F, which was worrying. She gave me an injection, and medicines to arrest the vomiting and diarrhoea. The treatment was similar for the other students. However, we were taken back to Kalakshetra immediately after that and were not admitted,” she said.
Things became worse by the evening of November 21 — a Sunday. “It was like a movie scene when a disease breaks out. Girls were vomiting in the corridors of the hostel, puking from their rooms out onto the balconies and the verandas. There are three buildings in the women’s hostel and all of them smelled of vomit,” said one of the staff members.
One student fainted, and the panicked wardens called an ambulance and alerted the director Revathi Ramachandran, who had until then dismissed the incident as a possible flu, staff members said. “The director came to the campus around 8.30 pm that day with packets of ORS (Oral Rehydration Solution), and some over-the-counter pills to stop vomiting and diarrhoea pills,” said a student, “She kept dismissing it as something that was ‘doing the rounds’, like a flu.” Revathi asked the staff to cancel the ambulance request. “She took another batch of five people in her government allotted car to the hospital. A couple of more such hospital trips were made,” said a staff member.
By the next morning, the students were sick and tired, their parents panicked and trying to get medicines delivered to the campus, and the teachers were trying to reassure everyone. “The students had a litany of complaints and wanted something to be done,” a teacher said, “They wanted proper doctor consultations, or at least permission to return home. I was left trying to reassure everyone, while the director brushed the issue aside completely.”
That evening — November 22 — Revathi Ramachandran brought a doctor couple to the campus, and for a few hours, students were told to consult with them. “They gave us the same ORS and paracetamol,” a student said. There was anger and frustration in the student body, and the third year students were particularly vocal about the mismanagement, sources recalled.
This angered Revathi Ramachandran, who summoned the teachers the next morning. “At first, just us teachers and class representatives were asked to come into her room,” one teacher said, “She was furious. She accused us of painting her in a bad light, and working against her.” At this meeting Revathi did something that infuriated the third-year students further. She sought a written apology from them for raising their health concerns with their teachers and not directly with her. She considered this a transgression on the part of the students, and threatened to send them back to remote classes if the apologies were not tendered.
At first, the students refused to tender an apology, but upon advice from their teachers, and because they wanted physical classes to continue, they wrote handwritten letters of apology to the director. TNM has a copy of one of these letters.
The letter reads, “Sub: apology for the inconvenience caused. We apologise for our misapprehension and for the immatured way that we approached and handled this problem. We promise you that we will not get emotional hereafter. Please consider our apology and please let us continue this offline class.” (sic)
The news of a possible outbreak of food poisoning involving hundreds of students had leaked. Teachers and students believe this could have been from the hospital where students were taken. A Food Safety Inspector of the state government was sent to the college hostel to ascertain the situation, our sources said. TNM has been unable to procure the report submitted by the inspector.
A Sun TV crew also reached Kalakshetra’s premises and reported on a possible food contamination, but the issue died down in less than 12 hours.
Less than 48 hours later, on the morning of November 25, 2021, Rukmini Devi College of Fine Arts (RDCFA) of the Kalakshetra Foundation issued a notice asking students to vacate their hostels by evening the next day, due to “heavy rainfall predicted from 26th November to 1st December 2021.”
“In order to prevent flooding that may arise due to flooding in campus, RDCFA will remain closed 26th November – AN for 1st – 4th year students. The hotel inmates in these classes are also to vacate the hostel and leave to their hometown,” the notice said. (sic)
It went on to say that online classes would be conducted from the following Monday until further notice. There were no such orders for the two-year post-graduate students, some of whom also live on campus. Everyone TNM spoke to believed this was an attempt to cover up the food poisoning incident and any further sickness or unrest it might cause on campus.
Kalakshetra sits by the beach in south Chennai and has seldom been flooded, senior faculty members who have also been students there said. The sandy 100-acre campus was not inundated during the 2015 Chennai deluge and did not flood during the 2021 rains either.
While Kalakshetra’s student body is small – about 250 men and women in all — most of them live on campus, hail from across India, and some are from other countries as well. Making urgent travel plans in less than 48 hours was nerve-racking, said several students. One of them who is from a northern state said, “I had to buy expensive plane tickets. I had to stay at a classmate’s house in Chennai for four days, because neither trains nor flights were available then.”
Physical classes resumed for second year students about a month later, while for the rest, they resumed mid-February the following year – after a gap of two-and-a-half months. There was no explanation given — why did the second year classes resume within a month while other students were made to wait for 12 weeks?
The management did not provide an explanation for the food poisoning incident, either to students or to their families. The warden who called the ambulance was sacked within days of the incident. “We feel she was made a scapegoat,” said a student.
Revathi did not respond to calls and WhatsApp texts for her comment. TNM will update this article if we receive a response.