Lecturer gets a charged answer

RAJKOT, Nov 15: An LLM student has charged a lecturer who asked her ``some difficult questions'' at a seminar with sexual harassment. On his...

RAJKOT, Nov 15: An LLM student has charged a lecturer who asked her “some difficult questions” at a seminar with sexual harassment. On his part the lecturer has denied the charges, and says he will set himself ablaze on November 23 if an inquiry is not ordered promplty.

Harsha Pandya, an advocate doing post-graduation at Saurashtra University’s law department, has made a representation to Vice Chancellor Harsiddh Joshi that seminar co-ordinator B.S. Sharma had asked her to comment on women’s rights and corruption, which was not part of the syllabus.

Pandya and some other girls had rushed to Joshi and made the written complaint immediately after the seminar was over.

Story continues below this ad

But Pandya was hard-pressed to explain the sexual harassment charge included in the complaint. All she would add was that Sharma would frequently call her to the staff room, and would stop her for a chat whenever he saw her outside class.

She also said Sharma had asked some girls students questions on LLB-level topics, which they could not answer as they were doing LLM after a five-year break. In the same complaint, another girl student has taken objection to Sharma asking her why she was doing LLM when she was already running a beauty parlour.

Sharma, who also heads the newly created department of human rights, said the students were getting back at him for his strictness. “I am very serious about seminars and insist on compulsory attendance. And yes, I might have asked questions some students found difficult.” Sharma said he could not even recollect Pandya’s face — she had been marked present for only one class in the first term. He said he was surprised when Joshi asked for him the day after the seminar and sought explanation on the charges.

Demanding two inquiries, — by the vice-chancellor and by an independent panel — Sharma has gone on dharna. He intends to go on hunger strike if the inquiries don’t begin by November 17. And to set himself ablaze on campus if they don’t by November 23.