Professor grabs student's collar over film dialogue at college event, NSUI demands apology
A professor at an Ahmedabad university allegedly grabbed a student's collar on stage after he quoted a film dialogue, prompting NSUI to demand an apology.
Days after the suicide of IIT Bombay student Sahil Wakode kept the debate over student-teacher conflict alive, another incident of friction between a student and a professor has surfaced. At a university event in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, a professor reportedly lost his temper over a student's comment, called the student on stage and grabbed his collar. A video of the incident is now going viral on social media.
In the viral video, the professor is seen visibly angry. He called the student who had made the comment onto the stage and allegedly grabbed his collar and threatened him. After the video surfaced, the student organisation NSUI, the National Students' Union of India, demanded that the professor apologise, warning of a sharp protest if the apology was not given.
According to information received, students of the university's Electronics and Instrumentation department had organised an event called "Technofora", which included a stand-up comedy show. The department's head and professor, H.K. Patel, was present on stage during the show. As the show was underway, a student recited a popular dialogue from the film "Golmaal 3": "Jaldi bol, kal subah Panvel nikalna hai."
On hearing this dialogue, professor H.K. Patel became angry and immediately called the student onto the stage. In the video, the professor is seen grabbing the student's collar and warning him. He allegedly told the student that if any faculty member was insulted on campus, he would take strict action, and that the student could even be suspended from the university permanently.
After the video appeared on social media, two kinds of debate began online. Some people expressed anger, saying the student should not have made such a comment about a teacher. On the other hand, NSUI said the professor had grabbed the student's collar and threatened him, and should therefore apologise. The organisation demanded a fair investigation into the matter and said a sharp agitation would follow if an apology was not given.
The organisation made clear that if its demands were not met, it would hold a strong protest on the university campus. Meanwhile, an executive registrar of the university said that no such incident had taken place. The university has not issued any official statement on the matter so far.
