The renowned Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has got its new Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Shantishree Dhulipudi Pandit, an academic in the field of political science and international relations. The post was left vacant after the former VC, M Jagadish Kumar (2016-2021) was appointed as the chairperson of the University Grants Commission (UGC). Dr. Pandit becomes the second vice-chancellor of the varsity appointed under the NDA government led by PM Narendra Modi.
With her new appointment, Dr. Shantishree has been trending on news searches. In the wake of events, her tweets from the past have started surfacing on the internet now. Very candid on social media, the new Vice-Chancellor has tweeted strong opinions of her on some of the most controversial political topics in the preceding two years.
The esteemed professor seems to be vocal in her support of the Bharatiya Janata Party whose central government has appointed her to the post. She also has held some strong opinions on JNU, from where she is an alumnus herself, and the farmers' protests. Unfortunately, in the process of writing this story, Professor Shantishree seems to have deleted her Twitter account, else the scope for bringing out a comprehensive list of her tweets would have been larger. Following are the some of her opinionated tweets.
Tweets of Shantishree Dhulipudi Pandit on JNU
The tweets of Dr. Shantishree on the subject of Jawaharlal Nehru University, whose academic and administrative departments she will lead, show concern about the culture of the University and the way students conduct themselves.
She believes that the Leftists in India have started supporting religious fanaticism, which was not the case back in the time. She also seems concerned with the way Jihadi "beards" and "hijabs" have come up on the JNU campus.
Professor Shantishree instead remembers her good old days in the campus. She finds a certain section of students not belonging to the University and reminds Twitterati about the fact that it was different when she was a student there.
There is a stereotype about the presence of a 'Tukde Tukde Gang' on the JNU campus. Guess we have the subscriber of that theory as the University's new Vice-Chancellor.
Shantishree Dhulipudi Pandit shows zero tolerance on Khalistan and Jihad
The new Vice-Chancellor tweets a lot with the keywords 'Khalistan' and 'Jihad'. She thinks that Liberals and Islamists are 'oxymorons'. She tweeted that opinion, apparently talking about one of the arrested student activists from JNU.
Professor Shantishree also has an opinion on the Gurugram Namaz Row, where Muslims were allegedly stopped from offering Namaz prayers out in the open. When the members of the Sikh community stood in solidarity with the Muslims, the Vice-Chancellor seemed to have a disagreement with the former. Witty enough, she managed to sweep the "Left Congress Lutyens Cabal" along with them in less than 70 characters.
There also exists a stereotype that Muslims overburden nations with overpopulation. The VC had her own way to reference to a study indicating a link between Covid-19 infection and testicular damage, infertility.
Dr. Pandit is an academic with the finest choice of words
Entitled to her own opinions, Dr. Shantishree has time and again, expressed her reservations with the farm protestors of 2021-22.
However to the surprise of many, during a disagreement on Twitter, she used some unparliamentary words against Dr. Ayesha Ray, another political scientist.
Last but not the least, Dr. Pandit seems to be very respectful towards the sharp minds that the faculty of JNU have. Alongside that, her respect for Tamil Brahmins doesn't shy away from her Twitter account.
The reasons for the deletion of Dr. Shantishree Pandit's Twitter account are unknown.
