DUSU President Smears Cow Dung on Principal’s Office in Protest
DUSU President Smears Cow Dung on Principal’s Office in Protest
DUSU President sparks controversy by smearing cow dung on a college principal’s office, saying, “Let her experience it too,” in protest against the suspension of a student.
A few days after Pratyush Vatsala, principal of Delhi University's Lakshmibai College, smeared cow dung on classroom walls, Ronak Khatri, president of the Delhi University Students' Union, smeared cow dung on the walls of her office in protest.
In a video trending on social media, Vatsala applied cow dung to some classrooms of the college after students complained of rising temperatures. She said it was a research experiment applying 'indigenous knowledge' to fight the summer heat. The effort was undertaken in the second-floor portable cabin classrooms under a faculty-led project titled 'Study of Heat Stress Control by Using "Traditional Indian Knowledge."
The incident has ignited protests from students against the decision. But some netizens on social media praised the principal for this step, while students of DU backlashed her with hatred.
In another video circulating on social media, Khatri is seen applying cow dung on the walls of Vatsala's office while simultaneously pointing out that the Principal is sitting in an air-conditioned office, while students have to sit in classrooms covered in cow dung.
“The research ma’am [Vatsala] wanted to conduct in the classrooms will be carried out in her office as well,” Khatri is seen speaking in the video.
“No consent was taken from students for such an initiative,” He said.
However, Khatri later took to X (formerly Twitter) to post about the said viral video, further saying ironically that he and his supporters were there to “help” the principal instead.
Khatri wrote, "We have full faith that Madam will now get the AC removed from her room and hand it over to students, and run the college in this modern and natural cool environment smeared with cow dung".
No official from the university has commented on what happened on Tuesday. Meanwhile, the event has sparked an online forum around student consent, research methods, and whether traditional methods ought to be tested in academic institutions.
