Twitter
Advertisement

Valson Thampu has caused too much damage to St Stephen's already

Controversial principal Valson Thampu has brought in censorship, crackdown on students, suspensions

Latest News
article-main
FacebookTwitterWhatsappLinkedin

St Stephen's college's highly controversial principal Valson Thampu offered on Monday to resign if he is "objectively proved" to be a "cause of embarrassment to the institution", in the current sexual harassment case.

A top college in the country, St Stephen's has been in the news for the past few years for all the wrong reasons -- censorship, crackdown on students, suspensions. And, Thampu is apparently the reason.

A faculty member said: "Thampu is destroying the very ethos of the institution". This ethos, according to this member, former and current students, was the freedom to critique, question, dissent and debate with authority. But, Thampu brooks no dissent.

In the sexual harassment case, where a young PhD student has accused her supervisor of molestation, Thampu asked the girl to take back her complaint, and give in writing a complaint without the words sexual harassment.

This is not the only time he has tried to shield an accused of sexual harassment. Faculty members and former students recount the infamous "Lakshmikant case" where a female student was propositioned by a labourer called Lakshmikant. Instead of going by the recommendations of the college's sexual harassment committee -- the accused should not be brought anywhere near the student – Thampu sheltered Lakshmikant by employing him as his personal chowkidar and reinstated him in the college where he still works. In another case, a woman working in the library complained of harassment by the head librarian. When the college committee did not uphold her complaint, she approached Delhi University's apex committee that took her side.

Instead of implementing the panel's recommendations, Thampu dismissed the case and wanted the girl's conduct checked.

Curiously, before becoming principal, Thampu put the sexual harassment commitee in place. Former principal Anil Wilson had opposed him then. Those who worked with Thampu before and immediately after his election say he made all the right noises about democracy, gaining support. However, once he became strong in the governing body, he disregarded the committee's recommendations, and attacked those who opposed him. Thampu is notorious for telling students protesting against restrictive hours at the women's hostels that "girls are like eggs and boys are like stones" and the two could not be compared. He once suspended a student for asking a simple question.

According to a former student, previous principals were strict, but they didn't "hunt you down, destroy you or bend you to their will". According to Devansh Mehta, a recent graduate who Thampu suspended over the college magazine, there is now a culture of fear and apathy. "No one is going to stand up for another student's rights when one might lose their place in the hostel," he says. He recalls how Thampu dealt with hostel protesters, starting yearly residency interviews where students had to prove why they deserved readmission to the hostel.

"We're producing little monsters," says a faculty member, "people who are learning to say only yes to authority, when our creed was always to say no. He has subverted free thinking in this college." Mehta adds: "He breaks the spine of students."

Thampu's term ends by March 2016, and some still hope his legacy of censorship and stamping out creativity will not leave a lasting impact and that the college's own history of "producing contrarions and eccentric minds", as the former student put it, will see it through.

Find your daily dose of news & explainers in your WhatsApp. Stay updated, Stay informed-  Follow DNA on WhatsApp.
Advertisement

Live tv

Advertisement
Advertisement