Mar 22, 2022, 11:29 AM IST
"If a woman comes up... there are men -- especially the privileged -- who do not like women coming up," said JNU Vice-Chancellor Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit when Asianet News caught up with her on the sidelines of a book launch on the university campus.
Listing the challenges before her as the first woman vice-chancellor of the university, Prof Santishree said that JNU has a budget deficit of Rs 103 crore. Ideologically, I don't think students are committed. Everybody is good. They may have issues, which if we resolve there will not be much of a problem. The second is promotions to the faculty and advertisement of positions. We have nearly 300 vacancies for teachers and 450 for non-teaching staff. And then there are infrastructure issues. For all this, we are looking towards private-public partnership because government alone cannot give everything."
Talking about the progress that had been made in her tenure insofar as gender sensitivity, she said, "Recently, the Holi festival was celebrated. This is the first Holi in four years where we did not have any major incidents. We appealed to all sides, told them not to force anybody. I thank the students for maintaining their sanity. So that itself is an achievement."
In the pull-aside conversation, Professor Santishree also sought to put an end to all the controversies surrounding her appointment as the JNU vice-chancellor.
To recall, shortly after her appointment in February this year, Twitter posts with communal overtones and name-calling students, farmers and politicians had gone viral on social media. She had then distanced herself from the Twitter handle the posts emanated from.
Giving more details, Prof Santishree said, "That (claims) died down in three days. Why? Because it was a morphed identity. I never had a Twitter account called SantishreeD, I had Santishree11. That account was removed by my daughter six years ago because she is a cyber-security engineer in the United States. In America, they are very, very sensitive -- more than India. So she removed it."
Clarifying on another controversy involving a vigilance probe against her in her previous university, Prof Santishree said, "A clear vigilance report is done. I won the elections in 2001, defeating NCP and Congress. I am from the right platform and from the teachers' union. They are putting allegations. Show one FIR that is filed against me in any police station in India. I challenge them. This is just people being jealous. If a woman comes up there are men -- especially the privileged -- who do not like women coming up."