The Karnataka government has written to the Centre seeking withdrawal of the ‘deemed-to-be university’ notification tag of Bengaluru’s Jain University, which witnessed a row in February over a skit with derogatory terms against Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar and Dalits during a college festival. In the first-ever reaction, Prof M S Santhosh, Joint Registrar at the University, told News18 exclusively that “they have no communication from the state government to this effect, but the skit was not done with their knowledge”.
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The state government’s committee formed to investigate the matter found that “the management of the University was well aware of the script, content and dialogues”. “In spite of that, the management of the University did not prevent the student from performing the said skit,” stated the letter to the Secretary of the Union Ministry of Education.
The letter dated August 8 highlighted that the skit used words such as ‘untouchability’, ‘inequality’, ‘caste’, and ‘reservation’ in a contemptuous manner. “This incident caused unrest in society and hurt the sentiments of the public,” the letter further emphasised.
The recommendation from Karnataka is signed by Nandakumar B, the under-secretary of the higher education department, and underlines that the Centre should take immediate measures to withdraw the notification declaring Jain University as an institution deemed to be a university.
“The apparent maladministration and mismanagement of the University constrained the state government to invoke coercive measures against the university. Accordingly, I am directed to request you to withdraw the notification declaring Jain University as an Institution deemed to be a University at the earliest,” the letter said.
BENGALURU’s JAIN VARSITY REACTS
Prof M S Santhosh said, “We have no communication from the state government to this effect. We have written to the state government asking them about their communication to the Central government, if there is one. We are seeking details of the letter if any, and we want it to be shared with us. We have not been kept in the loop of the communication of this particular report, nor have we received a copy of it.”
Santhosh further stated that it has come to their knowledge that “the skit was done with our full knowledge”. “We would like to clarify that this is not true. It was not well within our knowledge. The alleged communication talks about mismanagement and maladministration. I sincerely don’t know what they are talking about, and we are awaiting an official copy of this letter and the report. We would like to know what the inference has been on this issue,” the Prof added.
Jain University, a Bengaluru-based private university that was initially operating as Sri Bhagawan Mahaveer Jain College, has five campuses in the IT capital and a student strength of over 30,000. It attained the ‘deemed-to-be university’ tag in 2009.
THE CONTROVERSY AT JAIN VARSITY: SKIT ‘INSULTING AMBEDKAR, DALITS’
On February 11, students participating in the extended youth festival scheduled until February 20 performed a skit that allegedly contained derogatory references to Dr B R Ambedkar and Dalits. The skit contained dialogues that were considered offensive and contained derogatory remarks against the community and the Father of the Indian Constitution.
As the video went viral, there was outrage in the state, especially among Dalit organisations. The Bengaluru police arrested nine people, including seven students and two faculty members, who were part of the performance. The nine accused faced charges under Indian Penal Code (IPC) Sections 153A, 295A, and 149 for offences related to instigating animosity between societal groups. They were later remanded in police custody for three days and were granted bail after spending 10 days in custody.
Dalit organizations staged protests, with more than 50 formal complaints and two first information reports (FIR) lodged in Nanded and Bengaluru by members of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
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The skit was presented by The Delroys Boys, a theatre group from the CMS unit of the university. They later issued an unconditional apology along with the management.
A university official, who spoke to News18 when the issue broke out in February, had said that “the skit was categorized under a segment called Mad-Ads, where participants are to advertise imaginary products with humorous content. It was intended to be spontaneous”. “While its purpose was to highlight the societal challenges linked to the caste system, the seven students took liberties that crossed the line,” the college authorities had said.
The apology letter said “the skit aimed to highlight anti-caste sentiments but had crossed boundaries while being presented extempore”. The university also outlined that the skit’s intention was “to highlight the issues associated with the caste system in the country”.