A video of a professor at the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur abusing students has gone viral on social media, leading to many students and academics calling for her resignation. The professor, who has been identified as Seema Singh, is heard calling the students “bloody b****rds." Based on the video shared, during an online class, the professor is heard shouting at students who were attending her Preparatory English Course classes. A preparatory course is a one-year course run by IITs for students belonging to SC, ST communities and Persons With Disabilities (PWDs) to fill the seats reserved for them.
Three video clips of the professor calling the students names and shouting at them were shared online. In a video, which starts abruptly, the professor is heard saying, “What I have to do, I will do. Nothing on earth can prevent me from doing that thing. Go to the Ministry of Woman and Child Development, go to the Ministry of SC/ST and Minorities, nothing will prevent me from doing what I have to do to you. Is it clear? Hello, bloody ba****ds, is it clear? (sic)”
There is no discrimination in premier institutes? This is what happens in IITs. IIT Kharagpur Prof. Seema Singh openly abuses freshers enrolled in Preparatory English Course for SC/ST/PD students and challenges them to complain.
— Azhar (@lonelyredcurl) April 26, 2021
Will the government book her under PoA Act? pic.twitter.com/YvzOuxjmwm
“I will call you what you deserve to be called, better by your names. And you will get attendance only if your camera is on throughout the class. If not, go to hell. I will not listen to anybody, nobody on this planet can change my decision if I make it. Is it clear or not? (sic)” she goes on in another video.
In one of the videos, she is heard shouting and abusing the students, seemingly upset with the students for not standing up during the national anthem. “Shameless creatures, you have to stand up for only two minutes for the national anthem, you cannot do it, and bloody ba****ds, this is on your parents, I am calling your parents that. Do you have any shame? One smart fellow did not stand up for the national anthem and says ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai.’ Are you in school now, bloody ba****d? When will you learn sense, you idiotic people? I give you one week time. You don’t know who I am right, I will tell you who I am (sic),” she says in another video shared online.
How are students from oppressed/minority backgrounds expected to study in premier institutes of higher education when this is the treatment they receive? The professor is brazenly abusing them AND their parents.
— Azhar (@lonelyredcurl) April 26, 2021
Would she have found this confidence if this weren't the norm? pic.twitter.com/pSVak563gD
In the third video, she is heard calling out a student for sending her an email expressing inability to attend classes as their grandfather had died. “This is shocking, this is a total non-application of the human mind. If someone’s grandfather has died, how does that prevent him/her from attending classes? (sic)” she is heard asking students not to approach her directly for such issues and that students should approach the director.
How can students be expected to sit at home and attend online classes when this is what they have to go through? Even a death in the family is not allowed to be excuse for absence.
— Azhar (@lonelyredcurl) April 26, 2021
Note that there is mandatory 85% attendance rule. Why are faculty allowed to enforce it now? pic.twitter.com/BgyAkiKxna
According to a report in The Hindu, the university has taken cognisance of the issue. The registrar told the newspaper that action will be taken and that “in the IIT system, we do not support such language.”
The incident has sparked much outrage on social media, with many calling for action against the professor and demanded her resignation. The hashtag ‘#End_Casteism_In_IIT’ was among the top trends, with many sharing incidents from their personal lives when they too faced such discrimination in universities.
Bhim Army Chief Chandra Shekhar Azad has condemned the professor and has called for her to be sacked.
“The Casteist remarks made by a Professor of IIT Kharagpur on SC/ST students during an online class are atrocious.The professor must be suspended with immediate effect and booked under SC/ST Act. Casteism will not be tolerated at any cost. #End_Casteism_In_IIT,” he tweeted.
One should do anthropological study on Upper Caste teachers. We must know about their primary socialisation. Their stock of knowledge at hand. What they talk at dinner tables? Study their conversations,their behaviour. They are the problem. Study the problem. #End_Casteism_In_IIT
— Dilip Mandal (@Profdilipmandal) April 26, 2021
In those perfect English-speaking people's groups. To not seem crude. To be accepted in a space you're told isn't yours. To work hard in that space and not have friends you can share it with, that's scary! Yet, so many Dalit students go through it no?
— Divya Malhari (@Datlitwriter) April 27, 2021
The National Commission for SC/ST must take cognisance of this asap. I also hope that IIT Kharagpur places this faculty on immediate suspension. This is brazen atrocity---many thousands of such incidents occur because of casteist faculty--for once, we have audio/video evidence. https://t.co/0QfNGq63UB
— dr. meena kandasamy | இளவேனில் (@meenakandasamy) April 26, 2021
I995: I was in IIT Kharagpur for MTech for very short time before I left to do something else
— Tanoj Meshram (@MeshramTanoj) April 26, 2021
My SC ST friends were scared to get attestation on their caste certificate photo copy from non SC ST professors. They were also scared to use their SC ST book bank tickets in library.