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'I Don't Feel Safe Going Back To Oxford': UK Begins Probe Into Hindu Student Leader Rashmi Samant's Bullying
Swarajya Staff
Mar 23, 2021, 12:13 PM | Updated 12:13 PM IST
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The UK police and Oxford University has started an investigation to the bullying of Rashmi Samant - who had become the first Indian to have been elected the president of Oxford student union but was forced to resign over allegations of "transphobia, racism and anti-semitism".
These allegations have already been analysed as being based on flimsy grounds, with many stating that the witch hunt against Samant was a result of intolerance against Hindus.
An MSc student at Oxford, Samant was elected as the student union president five months into her course, following which the intense campaign against her began.
This included an Indian origin history lecturer Abhijit Sarkar leading the charge against Samant, virtually dehumanising her and painting a target on her back. Sarkar who proudly boasts of having broken Saraswati idols has been accused of inciting religious hatred and bullying and harassment of Samant. A complaint to this tune has been filed by the managing director of the global Hindu Federation Satish Sharma.
Students say that the bullying of Samant smacks of liberals virtue signalling.
Now having come back to her native place of Udupi, Samant is attending online lectures despite having paid £24,000 in fees. Soon after the controversy, Samant came back to India and had to be hospitalised due to stress.
She says that she doesn't feel safe going back to Oxford and that Sarkar's statement emboldened other students to continue their defamatory statements.
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