On the 20th of October, a student from ABES College of Engineering in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, found themselves reprimanded by an assistant professor during a college cultural festival and student induction program. The professor, identified as Mamata Gautam by social media users, scolded the student for greeting the audience with a courteous “Jai Shri Ram.”
The incident came to the fore after the video of a professor, purportedly Gautam, yelling at the student went viral over the internet. Gautam scolded the student saying, “Why did you raise the slogan of Jai Shri Ram? Do you come to the college for this? This is a cultural program. This cannot be allowed. Out. Get Out.” Meanwhile, the student said that he was just responding to the ‘Jai Shri Ram’ calls from the audience.
The video vividly captures several students on stage greeting the individual with “Jai Shri Ram,” to which the person on stage responded with the same phrase. After this, the entire college stadium very delightfully cheered ‘Jai Shri Ram’ which irked Mamata Gautam who stood from her seat and expelled the student from the stage.
The incident, as per the viral video, seems to have happened during a college cultural fest named ‘Navtarang 2023-24’. The program was also organized for the welcome of the BTech first-year students at the ABES College of Engineering, Ghaziabad.
The videos sparked online outrage, with a raft of netizens calling for punishing the teacher for unnecessarily slamming the student who responded to the audience with ‘Jai Shri Ram’ greeting. “This needs an Investigation. The student should be reinstated ASAP,” said one of the users. Meanwhile, the other one said that the incident exposed people hiding for years in the garb of secularism.
College authorities say they ‘don’t know anything’ about this
Dr Mamata Gautam, as per the official website of ABES College of Engineering, Ghaziabad has 16 years of experience and specialises in Chemistry. She has a PhD and has been working with the college as one of the Assistant Professors.
OpIndia’s team attempted to contact the institute to confirm the incident and inquire about the matter, but their calls went unanswered. Nonetheless, one of the assistant professors who requested anonymity over the matter said he had “no comments” on the matter.
A student with whom OpIndia spoke was reluctant to share information about the matter. He also claimed that he does not whether Mamata Gautam was a teacher at the institute or not. However, one of the representatives of the faculty members confirmed that Mamata Gautam was indeed a faculty at the institute. The representative, though, remained cagey about the incident, claiming that he knew nothing about the matter.
OpIndia has sent an email to the institute and the said professor over their stand on the incident, the response to which will be updated in the report as and when they respond.
The Ghaziabad Police has taken cognisance over the matter after the video had gone viral and launched a preliminary investigation into the incident.
The sacred chant of ‘Jai Shri Ram’ is wrongly portrayed as a ‘war cry’
Notably, the divine chant of ‘Jai Shri Ram’ has been wrongly portrayed as a ‘war cry’ by several ‘seculars’ and ‘liberals’ time and again. However, varied Islamist slogans like ‘Sar Tan Se Juda’ which is a literal call for beheading, or ‘Allah-hu-Akhbar’ are never addressed by these people with the condemning tone they actually deserve.
It is necessary to take an account how a non-violent simple Dharmic chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ is demeaned as a provocative slogan as opposed to several dreadful Islamist slogans that are ignored and usually get a free pass.
It has been observed that the ‘liberals’ and ‘seculars’ widely use the sacred ‘Jai Shri Ram’ slogan to defame Hindus and portray them as hateful. The ‘liberals’ have deep-rooted hatred towards Hindus and they have been targeting, and demeaning Hindus over the divine chant especially since the BJP, known for its Hindutva beliefs, came to power in 2014. OpIndia has recorded several such incidents in which the ‘Jai Shri Ram’ slogan was misused to turn a random crime into a ‘hate crime’. The said report can be read here.