A professor of Manipal Institute of Technology at Manipal University in Karnataka has been suspended for making Islamophobic remarks directed towards a student.
The incident came to light after a video of the same went viral on Twitter and Facebook.
In the video, a student can be heard arguing with a professor and calling him out for referring to him by the name of a terrorist and insulting him for being a Muslim. The student who is in a full classroom says, "You can't joke about my religion..that too in such a derogatory manner." When the professor says that his remark "was funny" and meant to be taken as a joke, the student flares up and adds, "No sir.. it is not a funny thing. 26/11 was not funny. Islamic terrorism is not funny. Being a Muslim in this country and facing all this every day is not funny."
The video went viral and was tweeted by several people lauding the young boy for standing up to the comments made by his professor.
BOOM learnt that the professor seen is a faculty member in the Civil Engineering department of the Manipal University of Technology and the incident happened about a week ago. While not heard in the video, according to the source, the student got angry and called out the professor for calling him "Kasab"— after the terrorist Ajmal Kasab who was hanged after being convicted for his role in the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai, Maharashtra.
In the video, the professor can be seen apologising to the student and attempting to justify his comment as a "joke" and that the student was "just like his son". The student retorts, "Will you call him by the name of the terrorist? You are a professional, you are teaching. These jokes are not acceptable. Sorry does not change how you think."
BOOM also accessed a message posted by the student on a WhatsApp group explaining the incident in the video. In the message, dated November 26, 2022, the student, refers to the viral video and explains, "The reason behind this was him calling me by an unacceptable name, "Kasaab", one of the biggest terrorists this country has ever seen. It was a joke, which cannot be considered a valid enough reason to question the identity of a human being."
The student further then says that the issue was resolved and that he accepts his professor's apology. He writes, "However, I had a conversation with the lecturer and realised that he genuinely meant that apology, and we as a student community must let it go as a genuine mistake. I understand what was happening in his head behind this and would like to believe he did not mean it. It came across wrong from a teacher, a person we admire, but it cannot be ignored this time."
BOOM has redacted the name of the student from the message to protect his identity.
We then contacted Manipal University and SP Kar, Director of the Public Relations Cell of the institution, confirmed the incident and said that the college had counselled both the student and the professor. "After speaking to the student and the professor, we set up an internal inquiry committee to look into the incident. The said professor has been suspended from active classes pending inquiry." Kar added that the university condemned the incident and was looking into it seriously. "We were alerted to the video and incident from a tweet. We have taken the matter seriously and are really sad that such comments were in our college," Kar said.
The Manipal Institute of Technology also issued an official statement about the incident.