Jadavpur University’s ‘virginity professor’ faces NCW heat, student boycott of lectures

KOLKATA: National Women’s Commission (NCW) chairperson Rekha Sharma on Tuesday wrote to Bengal DGP Virendra to investigate and take appropriate criminal action against Jadavpur University professor Kanak Sarkar. She has also sought to meet JU vice-chancellor Suranjan Das on Friday on the issue.

The state women’s commission is also likely to lodge a suo motu complaint against Sarkar for his now-deleted Facebook posts extolling the value of a woman’s virginity, commission chairperson Leena Gangopadhyay told TOI on Tuesday. It is also likely to summon Sarkar for questioning. The state commission has written to JU vicechancellor Suranjan Das, seeking an explanation into whether action, if any, has been initiated against Sarkar. “We will take all steps as per law,” Das said.

The commissions’ action coincided with students hitting the JU campus in protest and submitting a memorandum against Sarkar to JU’s joint registrar. “We have been informally told that the university statutes do not have anything in it that allows the university to act on social media posts. However, we have been told that if there is a specific complaint of sexual abuse or harassment, the VC will take immediate action,” said a student protester. “We then went to the internal complaints committee, but got no reassuring feedback.”

IR students have decided to boycott Sarkar’s classes in protest. In their submission to Mishra, they demanded a public apology from Sarkar and “strict disciplinary action, not limited to suspension”. The students claimed the posts, which proved Sarkar’s regressive mentality, made them uncomfortable. Sarkar teaches political sociology and state politics in India to post-graduate students and Western political thought and foreign constitutions to IR undergraduate students.

Sarkar told TOI that he will not take classes for the next 10-15 days due to the ongoing turmoil on campus. He also deleted his Facebook page. “I have already apologised for those remarks. I do not believe in what I wrote since it was only meant to provoke a discussion in a closed Facebook group. I had no inkling that the screenshots would be used widely. I am traditional in my beliefs,” he said. “While people are alleging that this has demeaned women, I had written many posts in their support. I had also written on the virtues of celibacy in men. Somehow those are being ignored now. Having said this, I repeat those were my personal views and not aimed or directed against any person or group.”

The NCW is not convinced. Its chairperson, Sharma, has expressed her concern over the matter in her letters to the state DGP and vice-chancellor Das, saying those were “shocking misogynist lessons on virginity”. State commission chairperson Gangopadhyay, who consulted their legal cell, said: “We have decided to lodge a suo motu complaint, based on which we will issue a notice to the appropriate police station to ensure his presence before the commission. The commission will then seek an explanation for the Facebook posts.”

Gangopadhyay said the letter to the VC was an attempt to understand what action has been initiated against Sarkar.

An IR student alleged that Sarkar had made similar “sexist comments” on social media in the past.