On Wednesday, DU senior professor Sangit Kumar Ragi’s office was ransacked after he made controversial remarks against an SP spokesperson during a television debate. Students submitted a memorandum demanding his suspension.
On Wednesday, Delhi University senior professor Sangit Kumar Ragi’s office was ransacked after he made controversial remarks against Samajwadi Party spokesperson Manoj Kaka during a television debate.
The incident came after Ragi and SP spokesperson Manoj Kaka had a heated argument during a debate on the news channel ABP on Tuesday. During the argument, Ragi used insulting words against Kaka; Kaka also called the professor a “donkey”. Ragi, a senior professor in the Delhi University’s Department of Political Science, was particularly called out for his use of a specific casteist term.
Videos that have surfaced show a group of people entering Ragi’s office in the social science building in North Campus, demanding his suspension. Some of them allegedly smeared cow dung on the gate of his office, covering the nameplate. The group also allegedly broke the glass pane on the office door, tore and scattered files and damaged furniture.
Students submitted a memorandum addressed to the Vice-Chancellor of Delhi University, demanding that Prof. Sangeet Ragi be suspended immediately and disciplinary action be taken against him.
Image Source: Bhaskar English
Speaking to Times of India, Ragi said the protesters were angry about his remarks during the TV debate, which he admitted he should not have made. After the TV debate, Sangit Kumar Ragi was seen apologising for his comments in a statement on X. In response to his usage of a casteist term, he wrote, ‘This was not directed at the entire community, but at abusers like him.” He further wrote, “Some people may have been hurt by this, so I apologise. That was not my intention.“
Image Source: Sangit Kumar Ragi on X
The backlash against his comments was not limited to Delhi. Activists of the Samajwadi Chhatra Sabha staged a protest outside Lucknow University; the activists burnt his effigy and trampled on his photograph. The student organisation’s activists demanded strict action against Professor Sangeet Ragi. Several individuals joined in the call for his suspension, Congress spokesperson Ragini Nayak termed Ragi a “foul-mouthed Sanghi” and said that this remark has exposed his baseness. Meanwhile, journalist Meena Kotwal demanded that a case be registered against Ragi and that he be expelled from Delhi University.
Image Source: Bhaskar English
It is also worth noting that Professor Sangit Kumar Ragi was formerly the head of the Department of Political Science at Delhi University, and is an academic with several published books, including ‘RSS and Gandhi: The Idea of India’, ‘The Puritan Is Political: Mapping Islamic Radicalism’. The usage of casteist slurs by an academician and a senior professor at the University of Delhi has raised serious concerns and questions.
Image Source: Times of India
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