A Wave Of Sexual Harassment And Assault Allegations Sweeping The Communist Bastion Of JNU

Just a day after a Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) professor, accused of sexual harassment of woman research scholars, was arrested and later released on conditional bail, yet another scandal of alleged sexual harassment of a research scholar by two professors of JNU has rocked the campus.

The incident of sexual harassment allegedly happened when one of the professors went abroad on a trip to China with the complainant.

An email purportedly sent to the vice-chancellor by the woman scholar, who was subject to sexual harassment by the professor, has gone viral.

The scholar had lodged a complaint of sexual harassment against Prof Mahendra P Lama and Prof Rajesh Kharat, both from the School of International Studies (SIS) with the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) of the university on 8 January.

In her email to the vice-chancellor,the woman scholar who is a fourth year PhD student at Centre for South Asian Studies (CSAS), SIS, stated: "….I hereby request you to remove Prof Mahendra P. Lama and Prof. Rajesh Kharat from the interview panel of CSAS (Centre for South Asian Studies) immediately and suspend them until enquiries reach its logical conclusion. There are strong possibilities that if they are not removed from the panel and suspended immediately, the inquiry will be influenced."

Students of JNU held a protest levelling allegations of sexual harassment against professors Mahendra Lama and Rajesh Kharat. The students demanded that they be arrested.

Few woman scholars took to social media to reveal how JNU is unsafe due to the series of sexual harassment incidents and said they feel apprehensive and vulnerable in the presence of Professor Lama.

The role of Prof Ajay Patnaik, dean at JNU also came under criticism. He has been accused of shielding his colleagues by suppressing the harassment allegations.

In the petition that was filed in Delhi High Court, a student alleged that his PhD registration was deliberately stopped on frivolous grounds, because he had helped a student who was allegedly sexually harassed. Coincidentally, notice has been sent to the university; professors Lama, Kharat (former chairperson of the CSAS) and Patnaik (former dean at the SIS).

JNU's left leaning professors and student activists have been embroiled in a string of sexual harassment related controversies. In a few instances, they have even been slapped with charges of rape.

In December 2015, JNU terminated the services of an assistant professor of Sociology Dr Arshad Alam after an inquiry committee set up by the university found him guilty of sexually harassing a foreign scholar. He was suspended in August 2015, when the matter came to the fore. Alam was the All India Students' Association (AISA)'s national secretary during his activism days. AISA is the student wing of the Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) which represents the revolutionary Marxist ideology.

On 28 August 2016, JNU had suspended Anmol Ratan again a former AISA president. Anmol allegedly raped a research student after offering her a spiked drink in his hostel room.

In 2013-14, the then Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union (JNUSU) president Akbar Chowdhary and joint secretary Sarfaraz Hamid were charged of sexual harassment for which they were forced to resign. Chowdhary was later cleared of the charges.

In 2009, AISA activist turned assistant professor Dr Ganga Sahay Meena of the School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies was similarly suspended for one year on charges of sexual harassment. The charges were levelled by a former student of the Special Centre for Sanskrit Studies.