Students and alumni of Lady Shri Ram College have condemned remarks made by former diplomat Deepak Vohra on the campus as “communal” and “misogynistic”.
In separate statements, the students’ union and over 500 graduates have demanded Vohra, a retired Indian Foreign Service officer, condemn his own remarks.
The controversy erupted after Vohra spoke on the topic “Unstoppable India 2047”, organised by the BA programme department last week.
According to a faculty member, Vohra said India achieved bodily freedom in 1947, freedom of mind with the installation of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s statue near India Gate, freedom of confidence through the Chandrayan mission and freedom of spirit by constructing the Ram temple in Ayodhya.
The faculty member said Vohra also made comments on Muslims and women in the presence of acting principal Kanaka K. Ahuja. The students’ union alleged that his comments were “not only divisive but also misogynistic, derogatory, Islamophobic, queerphobic and offensive”.
“Such statements made by him have no place in an academic institution, and their delivery on our campus was a direct violation of our values and intellectual standards,” said the statement by the students’ union.
“As a community, LSR College has always valued integrity, inclusivity and mutual respect. These principles are not only central to our ethos but also form the foundation of the academic and cultural environment we have always sought to nurture.
“We outrightly condemn these remarks and acknowledge the shortcomings in the background checks undertaken in this instance, while we demand the speaker to condemn his remarks and discriminatory statements too,” the union said.
Over 500 graduates of the college released a statement expressing outrage at the comments. “As proud alumnae of Lady Shri Ram College across the globe, we condemn the recent episode concerning Deepak Vohra in the strongest possible terms and call upon the college and its senior management to explain how this came to happen,” it said.
They said that despite the deeply patriarchal contexts many students come from, LSR gives them the space to experiment with ideas, explore freedoms and be inspired by other women, all outside the constant censorious gaze of men.