The right wing hits a new low:

https://www.opindia.com/2021/10/shruti-pandey-jindal-global-llaw-faculty-hindu-untouchability/

Let's not kid ourselves. OpIndia is practically a department of the BJP, so this is an "official" RW attack. They carefully planned to secretly record Professor Pandey and leak the footage, almost certainly in complicity with RW students at JGLS. Now RW influencers are tweeting hateful messages against her. Some are tagging Naveen Jindal, the implication being that his company will be targeted. The message is clear: law school profs must mind what they say in class or we will lynch them virtually. The message is not just for Jindal, but also NALSAR and NLSIU.

We can watch in silence or fight back.

#IStandWithShrutiPandey

If someone says completely inaccurate things, then that can't be protested against? Which law or constitution says that exactly? I'm not talking about hurt religious sentiments, just that what she said was factually inaccurate, and if that's what she's teaching too, then she should be called out. Not via suspension though, nor threats. I don't support that. But what you are teaching has to be based on facts and not simply your interpretation or opinion disguised as facts. If it's your opinion, then you should make that part clear.

What she said was highly inaccurate and regressive.. if you stand with her than you are also a part of that lie.
Just don't make it always left or right..this was completely wrong.

These kind of teachers are dominating academics and brainwashing students towards regresivness.

Wow, a professor is making such statements and people are actually supporting the professor. My name is khan and I am not a terrorist, similarly my name is sharma and I a don't believe in untouchability.

Shame on professor. Propagating leftist ideology. #istandwithopindia

1. With all due respect, it doesn't matter if opindia is affiliated with BJP or not. Tackle the content and not the medium it has come up. It's clearly a case of pushing partisan narratives and getting an ego boost out of challenging the status quo.
2. The left almost always peddles narratives and misinformation as much as the right. This is pretty much a similar instance of academia pushing woke propaganda.

If you think that left ideology and problematic statements at Jindal is the key issue and this is not propaganda of the right, it maybe a good time to ask why a certain associate professor, who in facebook posts makes absolutely hardcore Islamophobia comments, and therefore can only imagine what he does in classes, but not a word on it anywhere. Welcome to new India. Propaganda is working. Welcome to reality.

Why would students from another institution stand in solidarity about the teacher from another institution making unsubstantiated comments in class that she is not really qualified to make, which has in turn been illegally recorded by a student and shared on social media? As in what exactly should people be standing in solidarity for and whom? As an academic, I stand ready to face whatever legal consequences are there for every single comment that I make in class. So should others be.

I generally agree with what she said about untouchability. Ambedkar even said as much when he called Hinduism a religion of ritual as opposed to a religion of principles. I don’t think Islam is all that great to women either. Actually I don’t think any religion really deserves praise.

Having said that - “online lynching” is not a thing. Not when real lynching happens in this country everyday. Someone criticising you online is not the same thing at all. If you can’t take it- turn off your phone and laptop for a bit. At the same time- asking for someone’s job because they said a thing that you don’t agree with- is hella toxic. We all need to stop this culture war bullshit. We can’t be making black lists and tearing each other down for every perceived slight when half the country is being sold off based on nepotism and the other half you can’t even get to without being imprisoned. There’s bigger battles to fight for all of us.

People should think twice before making random and deeply problematic/ inaccurate statements. Especially being a college professor who is dealing with people of different sensibilities from different backgrounds. If she had a strong academic view, she should've expressed it in a proper peer reviewed academic journal where the arguments would've been nuanced, not a random class lecture. Also, from what I gather she's not a qualified sociologist to be able to comment on such issues. This is not too different from the gaumutra brigade.

Dear friends and seniors, I just wanted to give you some insight into how the Jindal students have responded to this situation. Nobody gives a rats ass about it. She has had no support from the student body, regardless of their political inclinations. Leave support; there is no discussion of this matter in Jindal, and I'm not sure how there are three posts on LI discussing it; what are the moderators doing? Even if you're defending the professor, this isn't the prudent thing to do since you're exaggerating the issue by blowing it out of proportion. Professor Shruti has not for the first time made an unfounded allegation to intentionally harm someone's emotions, which has resulted in a lack of support from the JGLS student body. Now since there is no student support, a group of JGLS students (or/and possibly non-JGLS students too) are posting on LI and Facebook, calling for solidarity from other institutions exploiting the fact that these students/professionals have no knowledge of the professor's past conduct (not that anyone except JGLS students give a shit about JGLS). Please don't show any reverence out of sympathy for her unless you actually second her opinions in that case your support is your personal choice. It's not like the professor is being bullied or anything, which would be something we would have collectively resisted. She is being criticized by a rather biased segment of the media, but rightfully so. Even if her remark was misinterpreted, she had the opportunity to retract it, modify it, or at the very least offer an explanation, but she has deliberately chosen not to do so. Your solidarity would only imply that you back her position now that she is holding strong on her remark when she could have ended this with a simple explanation. I rarely visit legallyindia but I came here and composed this because certain students are assuming the authority on behalf of entire student body and begging for solidarity from other institutions when 1) they do not have the authority 2) the issue is not big enough to require solidarity from respected law schools of the country 3) the people you are asking solidarity from do not represent their student body either 4) even if they did have the authority, I doubt they care about Jindal's internal affairs.

Moreover, this issue is being blown out of proportion, this certainly doesn't deserve three conversation threads. Dear moderator, please make a provision to merge threads for a better user experience.

NLUD Prof and NALSAR alum Chinmayi Arun has expressed support. I hope more NLU people come forward.

https://twitter.com/chinmayiarun/status/1447599589767405568