JU professor barred from campus, teaching duties for sexist remarks, summoned by WBCW

Kolkata : Jadavpur University on Wednesday barred from its campus International Relations’ Professor Kanak Sarkar, who has drawn all-round condemnation for his series of sexist and inappropriate comments on virginity, and ordered him not to take classes or be involved with the examination processes pending inquiry by women’s bodies and the university.

Sarkar has also been summoned by the West Bengal Commission for Women, which has taken suo motu cognizance of the complaints against him.

University vice chancellor Suranjan Das said the student-teacher committee of the International Relations Department, which met during the day, recommended that he be divested of his teaching duties with immediate effect.

“It has been decided that he will be barred from the campus till the completion of the various enquiries against him. From today he will not be allowed to take any classes or be involved with any examination processes,” Das said.

The committee forwarded a note to the vice-chancellor giving specific instances where Sarkar made “sexist, unfortunate comments and derogatory remarks inside the classroom”.

“I have referred the matter to the Internal Complaints Committee of the university,” said Das.

He said the state women’s commission has initiated an inquiry and asked Sarkar to appear before it within seven days and give his version.

The vice-chancellor said the National Commission for Women has sent him a letter saying they have also started an inquiry.

Earlier, NCW Chairperson Rekha Sharma wrote to the West Bengal Director General of Police seeking action as per law against Sarkar, who had in a series of recent Facebook posts, compared a virgin girl to a sealed “bottle of cold drink or a packet of biscuits” and commented that to men “virgin wife is like angel”.

“A girl is born sealed from birth until it is opened… A virgin girl means many things accompanied with values, culture, and sexual hygiene,” he said in his post.”

His comments drew howls of protests from netizens, the teaching community and Awomen’s bodies, following which Sarkar deleted some of the posts, but said he was within his rights to make his personal posts and cited his freedom of expression.

On Tuesday, the JU students boycotted classes and started an agitation in the campus demanding his explusion from the university.

Sarkar had then said that he had deleted his Facebook account and would stay away from the social media for a year.

 Published on: Jan 16, 2019 at 18:56 IST

IANS