New Delhi: Newly appointed Jawaharlal Nehru University vice-chancellor Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit claimed in the aftermath of the controversy on her earlier tweets that she never had a Twitter account.The Twitter account bearing her name – @SantishreeD – was deleted right after controversy erupted over posts made through, on the day when it was announced that she was to be the new JNU V-C.Speaking to Indian Express, Pandit has claimed that “somebody internally from JNU has done this.”“I didn’t have a Twitter account… It has been found out that it has been hacked and somebody internally from JNU has done this. The point is, many people are unhappy that I am the first woman V-C,” she said, adding that “reliable sources” had told her of the alleged involvement of JNU people.She has not explained how somebody from JNU would have known that she would eventually be appointed the institution’s V-C, thus enabling them to make a Twitter account ahead of time. Also unexplained is why the account was deleted the moment the controversial tweets made headlines, if the purpose of the “hacker” was to malign her.The new V-C’s claim was met with skepticism on social media as innocuous posts surfaced which drew on photographs that only she or her family would have had access to.Someone hacked into her family albums too 😔 https://t.co/8Vnklye09O pic.twitter.com/JhQV0VMnGy— Amritkaalvin Klein (@bigdeekenergyy) February 9, 2022Santishree Pandit now claims she never had a twitter account, or it was hacked, one wonders who then tweeted this very personal picture from the same acc. Curious #JNUVC pic.twitter.com/lGvfltFWcd— Gargi Rawat (@GargiRawat) February 9, 2022The Wire had reported on the now-deleted Twitter account, which had backed calls for genocide and attacks on students and farmers. Multiple tweets of the @SantishreeD corresponded to the rightwing style of social media posts, calling left-liberals “jihadists,” activists “mentally-ill jihadists,” Nathuram Godse’s action as emerging from the thinking that only Gandhi’s murder was a “solution” for a “united India,” referring to leftist activists of JNU as “Naxal Jihadists”, and so on.Professor Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit, the new VC of JNU. And her Immense Love with the Word "Jihadi". Best of Luck, JNU. pic.twitter.com/tLzJmU8UIk— Darab Farooqui दाराब फारूक़ी داراب فاروقی (@darab_farooqui) February 7, 2022Pandit also volunteered to Express that her daughter is a cyber-security engineer and closed her older Twitter account. This goes against her claim in the same interview that she “never had a Twitter account.”“Six years ago, she closed it for me because she was applying for some jobs in the US and she told me, ‘Mom, you are not going to be on any social media sites’. I’m not at all active on social media,” she said.Also read: Santishree Pandit’s Appointment as JNU VC Is Part of the BJP’s Majoritarian ProjectPandit said that she was being treated “badly” and “shabbily” by the press because – seemingly by appointing her – “Prime Minister Narendra Modi beat the Left in breaking a glass ceiling, which the Left did not do.”“I’m a woman from the marginalised section and from the southern state of Tamil Nadu. Why did the Left not do it all these years? Seventy years they were in power. They couldn’t get to JNU? It is their adda,” she said.Pandit also said that as a south Indian she believed that Rajendra Chola is the greatest emperor India has had and that more of the “Indian perspective” has to find space in history.When Express asked her about the Savitribai Phule Pune University’s vigilance report to the ministry, stating that she had faced action after an inquiry found her guilty of not following rules while granting admission to Persons of India Origin students, Pandit alleged that her side of the story was unheard.“Pune University played identity politics because I was a non-Maharashtrian who won the Management Council elections. Then it was a conspiracy to see that I don’t get any post. If really there was a case, why did the university not file an FIR against me?” she said, adding that this was done to harass her.Pandit also sought to dissociate herself from the blame of grammatical errors in her first press release as V-C. She said a “lady from the previous V-C” took a shorthand dictation and a public relations officer said that she “will correct and put it up.”
