The appointment of Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit as the first lady vice-chancellor of the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) by the Ministry of Education on Monday drew controversy over her old social media posts with certain opposition leaders and other stakeholders criticising the move.
“President Ram Nath Kovind, who is Visitor to the University, has approved the appointment of Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit as JNU Vice-Chancellor. Her appointment is for a period of five years,” a senior MoE official said.
M Jagadesh Kumar, who was holding the charge of acting VC at JNU after his five-year term ended last year, was last week appointed as the chairman of the UGC.
Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit is an alumna of JNU where she pursued her MPhil as well as PhD in International Relations. Pandit began her teaching career at Goa University in 1988 and moved to Pune University in 1993. She has held administrative positions in various academic bodies. She has also been a member of the University Grants Commission (UGC), the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), and the Visitor’s nominee to central universities.
Social media surfaced with Pandits’s old twitter posts which includes her criticism on the protesting farmers, Christianity, Nathuram Godse, Posts at the account under the name ‘Dr. Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit ’ call protesting farmers “parasites”; retweeted a tweet claiming that MK Gandhi’s last words being “He Ram!" is a “myth”; and describe anti-BJP students and teachers, at the university Pandit has been picked to lead, as “losers at JNU”, said the twitter from various handles.
Santishree Pandit allegedly also called for a ban on the funding towards the universities of Jamia Millia Islamia and St Stephens as the students protested against the unconstitutional Citizenship (Amendment) Act and National Register of Citizens (NRC).
Saket Gokhale, National Spokesperson-All India Trinamool Congress, reshared a tweet by the vice-chancellor from last year, in which she had referred to Indian Christians as 'rice bag converts'.
"The new Vice-Chancellor of JNU refers to Christians as 'rice bag converts'. She will now head one of India’s elite liberal arts universities Education Min should clarify if that’s how Christian students at JNU are going to be treated & if this is Indian govt policy," Gokhale wrote on Twitter.
CPI leader Kavita Krishnan also reshared tweets in which Pandit had called student bodies 'extremist Naxal groups' and 'losers from JNU'.
"The Modi regime’s new JNU VC has a twitter feed full of unhinged Hindu-supremacist bile against educational institutions founded by Muslims or Christians, & against India’s farmers, plus it’s full of #Covidconspiracy theories. She actively hates JNU," Krishnan tweeted.