Karan Kataria
An Indian student claims he was disqualified from the London School of Economics (LSE) Students’ Union elections due to an intentional smear campaign targeting his Indian and Hindu identities.
Karan Kataria, a student pursuing a postgraduate law degree at a prestigious institution in London and a native of Haryana, claimed that peer encouragement inspired him to run for the position of general secretary of the LSE Students’ Union (LSESU). However, he was disqualified last week over what he thinks are baseless allegations and without being allowed to fully present his case.
Karan Kataria said, “Unfortunately, some individuals could not bear the thought of an Indian-Hindu leading the LSESU and resorted to vilifying my character and very identity”.
Further, he said, “When I started my postgraduate studies at LSE, I sincerely hoped to pursue and further my passion for student welfare. But my dreams were dashed when a well-planned smear campaign was launched against me purely because of my Indian and Hindu heritage”.
The 22-year-old student hails from a middle-class farming family and describes himself as the family’s first university graduate. Soon after arriving in the UK for his Master’s degree at the LSE Law School last year, he was chosen as his cohort’s Academic Representative as well as a delegate to the UK’s National Union of Students (NUS).
“Despite overwhelming support from students of all nationalities, I was disqualified from the LSE Student Union’s General Secretary election. Allegations against me included homophobia, Islamophobia, queerphobia, and Hindu nationalism. Instead of identifying and punishing those who started this hateful campaign, the LSESU easily disqualified me without hearing my side of the story or disclosing the ballots I received”, Kataria added.
Kataria went on to say, “In addition, on the last day of voting, Indian students were bullied and targeted because of their national and Hindu religious identities”.
“The students raised this issue, but the LSESU ignored it by failing to take action against the bullies. The LSESU’s silent treatment of students’ complaints about such unacceptable behavior also justifies the charge of Hinduphobia”, he added.
The LSESU said in a statement on Monday that it operates fairly and democratically and has a strict zero-tolerance policy for any form of harassment or bullying. It has also requested an independent review of this year’s elections.
“Unfortunately, this year’s election rules were violated by a candidate, resulting in LSESU making the difficult decision to disqualify them from this year’s Leadership Race for the position of General Secretary”, reads the statement, referring to a violation of the rule requiring candidates to keep a “reasonable distance” of around two metres from anyone voting.
The statement further read, “Of course, LSESU conducts an annual review of how our elections are conducted. We are confident that all decisions were made in accordance with the law and best practices. However, given the impact this experience has had on some of the candidates involved, we will conduct an external review this time around and will make every effort to keep the community updated”.
(With input from PTI)
Also read: Author Tom Holland: Whole Of India In My Timeline
