Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit, a political science professor at Savitribai Phule Pune University, has been appointed as the first women Vice Chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU).
In her first statement after the appointment, she listed the construction of Indo-centric narratives, interdisciplinary studies and student-friendly environment as among her priorities.
She was appointed by President Ram Nath Kovind, who is the University’s Visitor., She will hold the job for the next five years. She succeeds M. Jagadesh Kumar, who was appointed chairperson of the University Grants Commission last week, after a stormy tenure.
“The immediate focus of this administration would be to provide clean administration, student-friendly and gender sensitive environment for academic excellences,” she said. “We would strive to implement [National Education Policy] 2020 the vision of our Hon’ble Prime Minister especially in interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary areas of studies, JNU rising to greater heights of academics and research. The focus would [be] in constructing Indo-centric narratives,” she added.
Alumna of JNU
Dr. Pandit is herself an alumna of JNU, having completed her M.Phil and Ph.D there at the School of International Relations, writing her doctoral thesis on “Parliament and Foreign Policy in India -- The Nehru Years”. She started her teaching career as a lecturer at Goa University before moving to the University of Pune in 1992, where she focussed on teaching and research on international politics and economics, global governance, security and human rights, peace and conflict studies and India’s foreign policy. Dr. Pandit has previously been a member of the Indian Council of Social Science Research, the UGC Committee on Higher Education and Indicators and a number of think tanks, according to her profile on the university website. She is currently president of the Indian Political Science Association and has been a resource person for the Academic Staff Colleges and the Military Intelligence Training School in Pune, providing insight into the Asia Pacific region and India’s security perceptions.
Born in the erstwhile USSR, where her mother taught Tamil and Telugu at the Leningrad Oriental Faculty Department, Dr. Pandit hails from Chennai and is a gold medallist graduate of the University of Madras. She herself is multilingual, speaking Telugu, Tamil, Marathi, Hindi, Sanskrit and English.
Tweets cause outrage
A Twitter account named Dr Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit offered strong opinions on Indian and international society and politics, leading to an outrage on the social media. The account included tweets referring to a section of JNU teachers and students as “losers” and “extremist Naxal groups” who should be banned from campuses. The tweet added that funding should be stopped for prestigious educational institutions such as St. Stephen’s College and Jamia Millia Islamia University, referring to them as “communal campuses”.
On Tuesday, Dr Pandit responded to The Hindu's queries regarding a controversial Twitter account in her name. Asked to confirm if the handle @SantishreeD belonged to her, she said, "Not mine".
Earlier on Monday, the account, which used her full name, and claimed to be by a professor, caused outrage on Twitter as screenshots of controversial tweets from the last few years became viral on the social media site. Using the unverified handle @SantishreeD, the account had about 500 followers on Monday morning, but grew over 10 times over the course of the day before being deleted early in the evening.
The account included tweets referring to a section of JNU teachers and students as “losers” and “extremist Naxal groups” who should be banned from campuses. The tweet added that funding should be stopped for prestigious educational institutions such as St. Stephen’s College and Jamia Millia Islamia University, referring to them as “communal campuses”.
One tweet indicated that speaking Sanskrit was being “civilisationally Hindu”, while another referred to an Indian Christian as a “rice bag convert. Tweets termed so-called “love jihad” “terror by other means”, Sunni Islam radical. Several Muslims and civil society activists were termed jihadists. A tweet advocated that they be dealt with “as the Chinese do”.
‘China a rogue nation’
China also came in for a lot of flak, being called a “rogue nation”. Tweets referred to COVID-19 as the China virus and accused the country of “bioterror” and “biowarfare” to gain hegemony and to destroy the Indian economy. In late April, tweets termed media reports of the brutal second wave of COVID-19 “fear psychosis”. In domestic politics, Congress leader Sonia Gandhi was repeatedly referred to as an “Italian remote control” and AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal as a “pathological liar”, with a tweet stating that no Hindu must vote for him. Protesting farm unions were described as parasitic middlemen, riffraff and liars.
In a tweet congratulating Dr. Pandit for making history as the first woman VC appointed in JNU’s 50th anniversary year, Manish Dabhade, an assistant professor at JNU’s School of International Studies thanked RSS leaders as well as the Prime Minister, Home Minister, Education Minister for “scripting” the appointment. “JNU is indeed in safe, competent hands now with this brilliant mind at its helm,” he added.
State topper
Dr. Pandit had completed her schooling and college from Chennai. She was a State topper in school and college.
Her political science teacher at Presidency College S. Lalithalakshmi recalled her as “a very bright student” who could talk on any subject “from politics to Michael Jackson”. She remembers the student mentioning Michael Jackson in a lighter vein.
“It was a tradition of the Presidency College in those days that one or two students would take up the IAS. We used to suggest to her to write the exam as students take political science with the idea. But she had a clear-cut idea about her career and wanted to be independent. She said ‘I want to become a teacher’. And she did her M.A. I heard later that she had joined Pune University as an assistant professor,” Ms. Lalithalakshmi recalled.
The then Head of the Department of Political Science at the college, Hamsapriya Srinivasan, said she enjoyed having Dr. Pandit in the class. Ms. Srinivasan remembers her as “a very bright student and at the same time she did not throw her weight around.”
“We used to have discussions about what she would like to do after college. I don’t think she was interested in administrative service. I knew that she would do well. The entire class in those days was pretty good. She was outstanding in the class. She stood her ground and was a good student. It was a pleasure to have her in the class,” the teacher said.
“I am very happy to know that one of our students has done so well. She deserves the recognition she has been awarded. I think she will do well and I am proud of her. I remember her only as a student. There are so many students who have kept in touch. I haven’t met her a couple of years after she left,” Ms. Srinivasan said.
(With inputs from R. Sujatha in Chennai)
