In a viral video doing rounds on social media, an IIT Kharagpur faculty is seen hurling abuses at students in an online class. Associate Professor, Seema Singh can be seen using foul language for students of Prep English Course, a year-long course meant as a preparatory course for SC/ST/OBC and PwD candidates to pursue engineering.
In the video, she can be heard calling a student ‘bloody bastard’ for allegedly not standing up for the national anthem. Along with the abuses, Prof. Seema can be heard threatening the students that she will fail them all.
“Go to Ministry of Women and Child, go to Ministry of SC/ST/Minorities. Nothing can prevent me from what I have to do to you,” she warns the students.
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.
Will the government book her under PoA Act? pic.twitter.com/YvzOuxjmwm
— Azhar (@lonelyredcurl) April 26, 2021
The video attracted a lot of attention on social media and the professor was criticized for her foul remarks and her casteist behavior. The Bahujan community and students say that the abusive slurs have to do with the larger issue of reservation, of the Bahujan students desiring to study in educational institutions like the IITs. #End_Casteism_In_IIT was seen trending on Twitter yesterday.
In their official statement regarding the incident, the Ambedkar Periyar Phule Study Circle (APPSC) have remarked, “She knows that the savanna-dominated IIT administration will protect her from any backlash. She uses hyper-nationalism to cloud her casteist mentality and forces the students to stand up for the national anthem which the Supreme Court of India had declared is not mandatory. However, even when students complied to her demand, she still uses it to abuse and throws casteist slurs at them again and again.”
In another video, the same professor can be seen showing disregard for a student, who had apparently written an email to her asking for a two-day leave after the demise of their grandfather. She calls the email ‘silly’.
The APPSC has made the following demands in their statement regarding the incident:
1) Immediate termination of such casteist and authoritarian professor.
2) She is booked under SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act, and Set up a permanent SC, ST, and OBC Cell at IIT Kharagpur and all other IITs. This Cell should act as an anti-caste discrimination cell, take strict actions against casual and structural casteism and work towards sensitizing the campus about casual and structural forms of discrimination.
Meanwhile the member of Parliament and a prominent Dalit Leader, Dr. Thirumavalavan demanded immediate action against the professor in a recent tweet.
“Dalit and Adivasi students were abused vulgarly in the name of caste by a faculty member #Seema_Singh of #IIT_Kharagpur in an online class. Immediate action must be taken against her under #POA_Act. #VCK strongly condemns this kind of humiliations practiced by caste fanatics,” he tweeted.buy prednisone online buywithoutprescriptionrxonline.com/prednisone.html no prescription