The 30-year-old assistant professor alleges in a police complaint that she was forced to quit over photos shared as ‘Instagram stories’ before she joined St Xavier’s, Kolkata. She adds that the entire removal process seemed harsh and like a witch hunt
St Xavier’s University, Kolkata. Image Courtesy: https://sxuk.edu.in
Most often people are asked to leave their workplace over inefficiency or mismanagement. However, a former assistant professor of English at St Xavier’s University, Kolkata has alleged that she was forced to quit her position over her Instagram images.
The academic is now planning to move the Calcutta high court demanding an apology and monetary compensation over her firing in October 2021. She also alleges that the process by which she was forced to quit the institute amounts to sexual harassment and deliberate character assassination.
The university has, however, refuted all the allegations and said that the assistant professor resigned voluntarily.
What’s the story here? Did St Xavier’s University, Kolkata actually fire a professor because of her social media images? We take a closer look.
The firing
The 30-year-old, an alumna of St Xavier’s College, Kolkata, and Jadavpur University, joined SXU as an assistant professor in English on 9 August 2021.
She alleges that on 7 October 2021, she received a call from the university asking her to meet the vice-chancellor.
According to a report in The Wire, she reached the university on the day without knowing the reason for the summons and waited for her meeting. At 4.30 pm, she was taken to a conference room where seven people, including Vice Chancellor Felix Raj, registrar of the university Ashis Mitra and her own departmental colleague and head of the gender cell of the university, Medha Bhadra Chowdhury, were present.
As per her police complaint, the 30-year-old was then informed that the university had received a written complaint from a first-year male undergraduate student’s father, saying that he had found his son looking at pictures of her on Instagram, which were ‘objectionable’ and ‘bordered on nudity’.
In the images concerned, the teacher could be seen in swimwear and gym wear.
As per an Indian Express report, the letter, which was read out to her, stated: “Recently, I was appalled to find my son looking at some pictures of Prof [….] where she has posed in a sexually explicit way causing deliberate public exposure… It is obscene, vulgar and improper for a 18-year-old student to see his professor dressed in scanty clothes exhibiting her body on a public platform.”
She then adds that she was asked to submit a report and tender a letter of apology.
“I gave an apology letter saying it wasn’t my intention to malign the university. But without even reading the letter, the vice-chancellor said the committee had unanimously recommended my removal. He asked me to resign citing personal reasons,” she told The Print.
She was allegedly told that keeping her on would “tarnish” the image of the university.
“I protested saying that it wasn’t right. But I decided to resign. I felt humiliated,” The Print quoted her as saying.
Character assassination?
The assistant professor, who has a PhD from two European universities, in her police complaint alleges that the entire removal process seemed harsh and like a witch hunt to her.
She states that the images in question were uploaded as stories — a feature that makes photos disappear after 24 hours. She claims that she does not know how the images got leaked. She further added that the images in question were taken in in June 2021, nearly two months before joining SXU.
“It is a mystery to me till date how the university accessed those pictures. I felt so distressed and humiliated at that moment that I couldn’t bear to examine the rest of the pictures. I was in a meeting where my private pictures were being circulated among people unknown to me, without my consent,” she told The Wire.
She alleges that the college authorities indulged in a total witch hunt and violated guidelines. According to her account of what happened, the V-C also slut-shamed her by asking if “her parents approved of her Instagram posts”.
The university has also slapped a defamation case worth Rs 99 crore on her. “Which rule did I violate? Why did they not do social media evaluation before they hired me?,” she told News18.
Netizens speak up
Several netizens, including ex-students of the institute, have taken to social media to condemn the incident and the culture of ‘sexism’ that exists on campus.
Others called the university’s actions regressive and misogynistic.
College speaks
The college has refuted all allegations of harassment or character assassination.
On being asked about allegations levelled by the ex-assistant professor, the Dean of Arts and Social Studies, Dr Achyut Chetan, told The Quint, “no comments.”
Meanwhile, Felix Raj, V-C of the University, sent across a response readied by their lawyer, which stated that the legal notice sent to the university by the complainant was “ill-motivated” and contained “fabricated allegations.” The response further asked for an “unconditional apology” from the professor and “a compensation of Rs 99 crore for damaging the University’s reputation.”
With inputs from agencies
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