St. Stephen’s College principal Valson Thampu has claimed it is not an option for him to pass his term quietly despite the college being subjected to a death dance and blackmail.
St. Stephen’s College principal Valson Thampu has claimed it is not an option for him to pass his term quietly despite the college being subjected to a death dance and blackmail.
Prof. Thampu has been quite vocal in his allegations about the college being subjected to harassment by certain alumni and teachers. His eight-year tenure as the principal of the college, full of controversies with repeated demands for his removal, ends in February. “Some of my friends have advised me to sit my term out in taciturnity and to exit, awash in goodwill. I must tell them that is not an option for me... The time has come for us to say no, I will not take it anymore, and I am doing that,” said Prof. Thampu on his Facebook page.
Reiterating that the controversies surrounding St. Stephen’s have been constructed and improvised, Prof. Thampu said, “Scores of controversies have been thrown at the college in the last 8 years. Has any among them amounted to anything Was there an iota of truth in any of them Controversy after controversy was invented and hurled at St. Stephen’s. As soon one controversy lost its sheen, a new one was improvised. It was a collaborative enterprise between a few depraved elements among the alumni to fleeting, mutual benefit.”
The college principal has also asserted that those levelling allegations should be held accountable. “Those who claim the right to make a song and dance in the public space must be held accountable. They must answer. This one-way traffic of aggression against those presumed unequals must stop. The death dance unleashed on St. Stephen’s presumes inequality and on top of it the irony of the blackmail that the college will be dragged to the Parliament,” he added.
Last week, prominent alumni including Arjuna awardee Raja Randhir Singh, former Congress MP Sandip Dikshit, BJD MP Kalikesh Narayan Singh Deo and Congress leader Sharmishtha Mukherjee, had come out against Prof. Thampu’s move to push for amendment to the college’s 102-year-old constitution for empowering the principal and the Church of North India (CNI).
