A viral video of a professor at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, has emerged where she was purportedly heard verbally abusing students for not standing up for the national anthem.
“This [standing up for the national anthem] is the bare minimum you can do for the country,” a voice is heard saying, reported to be of Professor Seema Singh, an associate professor of Humanities and Social Science at the institute. The woman’s voice was also heard threatening to give zeroes as scores for all the 128 students in the class.
“You have to stand for two minutes in the honour of the national anthem...you can do it...this is also on your parents...do you have any shame, you shameless creatures of prep course?” the woman’s voice was heard saying. The voice, reportedly of the professor, was heard continuously verbally abusing the students.
The students of the preparatory class were a group belonging to the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes community and persons with disabilities. One year of preparatory class is held for these students to prepare them for a seat in the institute next year, according to ThePrint.
“A few hours ago, I got an email in this regard,” institute’s registrar Tamal Nath told The Hindu. “In the IIT system, we do not support such language. We will take some action.”
The incident was being reviewed by a committee and the matter was taken up by the IIT-Kharagpur director, according to News18.
A few academicians have informed the National Commission of Scheduled Castes and the Ministry of Human Resource and Development about the matter, describing the abuses as ‘casteist’, reported the newspaper.
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