New Delhi: Police are investigating alleged anti-Hindu comments directed at Rashmi Samant, the first Indian woman to be elected president of the Oxford University students’ union, who was forced to quit after past social media comments made by her were deemed racist and insensitive.According to the UK-based newspaper The Telegraph, Thames Valley Police said it “can confirm that it has received a report of an alleged hate incident” and launched a probe. The newspaper said no arrests have been made.Samant had run on a platform to “decolonise the curriculum” and said she would oversee statues of figures linked to imperialism to be removed.However, after social media posts that Samant, who is from Karnataka, had made in the past were found to be “anti-Semitic, transphobic and racist”, she was forced to resign.Samant had admitted that she hurt members of the university community in her resignation letter, but later told she was forced to resign due to racism and cyberbullying.The matter of her resignation was raised in parliament, with Indian foreign minister S. Jaishankar saying he would take it up with the UK government.Three South Asian Oxford communities have issued a statement rejecting Samant’s claims that the university is Hinduphobic or hostile towards Indians. They have said that while a culture of institutional racism prevails at the university, Samant’s resignation had nothing to do with her religion or nationality.Her insensitive remarks about minority groups and “refusal to accept responsibility” for her actions are what prompted calls for her resignation, the statement by the three societies said.However, the groups also asked the university to take action against Abhijit Sarkar, a postdoctoral researcher at New College specialising in South Asian history, whose social media post targeting Samant was described as “anti-Hindu”.Satish K Sharma, director of the Global Hindu Federation, told The Telegraph that Samant was the victim of a “clueless and trigger-happy ‘woke’ lynch mob” and said Oxford must ensure she feels safe to return to the university.Oxford said it was “fully committed” to ensuring students of all backgrounds “feel welcome, valued and respected” and has appointed independent investigators to probe harassment claims.
