The chief proctor of Banaras Hindu University (BHU), ON Singh, resigned late at night on Tuesday, citing "moral responsibility," after the government accused the university of being inefficient in handling the crisis that precipitated from a molestation complaint by a student and subsequent violence oin protesters.
#BHUClash: Taking moral responsibility BHU Chief Proctor ON Singh submitted resignation to VC GC Tripathi, last night; it has been accepted.
— ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) September 27, 2017
Singh told Firstpost that he had submitted his resignation around 11:30 pm on Tuesday, after he realised that the problems in the university were nowhere close to ending.
Calling the incident as "unfortunate", Singh said: "I have resigned from this post taking moral responsibility for everything that has happened in the university in the last few days. Despite working tirelessly for the institution, the problems are unending," he said.
But the students at the university were unconvinced. They reportedly called Singh's resignation a farce and an eyewash.
An officer, who was investigating the violence at the University, said the university authorities did not handle the situation "sensitively" after a female student filed a complaint of molestation. This is when the situation escalated and led to the mass protests at the campus.
Varansai commissioner Nitin Gokarn told NDTV that when the students approached the university authorities to report the incident, it should have been sensitively handled, which was the missing link that triggered the chaos in the campus. "I am talking of the sensitivity of the first responders — they should have acted properly," he said.
An early report, submitted to the state government, said the university failed to act until the problem went out of hand despite the severity of the situation.
It was during these protests that a woman student was beaten up by the police, on the night of Saturday, September 23, when the students had come together to meet the vice-chancellor. The video of the incident, recorded on a mobile camera, soon went viral.
Meanwhile, the Banaras Hindu University Vice-Chancellor Girish Chandra Tripathi recently said that it was impossible to run the university if they were to listen to every demand of every girl. He called the victim's complaint "a simple case of eve teasing" by some outsiders with "vested interests".
Tripathi said the incident was staged keeping an eye on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit and that despite security measures in the university, "security for boys and girls can never be at par". He even refused to comment on the commissioner's report.
