Rashmi Samant racism row

The Rashmi Samant racism row started when cyber bullying and Cancel culture led to the forceful resignation of 22-year old Rashmi Samant, a MSc student of energy systems at the Linacre college, Oxford University from the Oxford University Student Union President post.

Background

Rashmi Samant, a 22-year old from Udupi of Karnataka, currently pursuing her master's degree in Energy systems at the Oxford University, got elected as the first Indian woman president of the Oxford University Student Union on February 11, 2021. During her campaign, she had compared Cecil Rhodes to Adolf Hitler by recalling the comments of former on India. She had also highlighted the need for greater "decolonisation and inclusivity" on campus in her manifesto.

Rashmi had received 1966 of the 3708 votes cast for the post. Her refusal to agree that colonisation was a positive experience for the indigenous colonies came under fire

Resignation

After an uproar over her posts and she apologising for it via an open letter in the student newspaper Cherwell, Oxford Students Union Campaign for Racial Awareness and Equality and Oxford LGBTQ Campaign demanded her resignation.

Within five days, she was forced to resign from the post because some of her social media posts were anti-Semitic and racist. Rashmi was forced to step down even after she offered an apology. The social media posts that accused her of racism were related to Berlin Holocaust Memorial and Malaysia. She was also alleged to have used the term trans women in place of women.

Cyber Bullying

Rashmi claims that Internet bullies, including a faculty member, had unfairly targeted her and dragged her family into the affair. She also claimed that the incessant bullying drove her to catch first flight home to India. She also claimed that the religious sentiments and regional background of her parents were insulted in public domain. She added that being a Hindu does not make her intolerant or unfit to be President of Oxford SU.

Twitter suspended her account for 36 hours and wiped out her entire list of followers. Rashmi also suggested that foreign universities should have regulations to protect students of colour from being cancelled.

A postdoctoral history researcher of New College, Oxford University, has been asked to apologise to Rashmi Samant for his social media posts attacking her parents. Thames Valley Police and Oxford University has started investigation into this issue based on complaints filed by Global Hindu Federation and Rashmi herself.

Reactions from India

On March 15, 2021, Bharatiya Janata Party MP Ashwini Vaishnaw slammed the racism and cyberbullying Rashmi Samant faced in the United Kingdom after "being the first Indian woman president of Oxford University Student Union". Speaking on the issue in Rajya Sabha, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar commented that India will never turn eyes from racism, particularly in a country where it has its large diaspora. He also added that the matter will be taken up with United Kingdom

Sreemoy Talukdar writing for Firstpost claimed that 'the cancel culture raging in the West and ravaging all its academic and cultural institutions has been brought into recent focus by an incident involving an Indian student at Oxford University'. He further wrote that Indians and Hindus remain the most vulnerable to this onslaught.

MP of Udupi Chikmagalur, Shobha Karandlaje and MLA of Mangalore City North Dr Bharath Shetty backed Rashmi

References

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