Attack on critical thinking? Lovely Professional University professor sacked for ‘insulting’ Ram

In an incident which is being seen as an attack on critical thinking, Lovely Professional University (LPU) has sacked a member of its faculty for allegedly insulting Lord Ram.

Professor Gursang Preet Kaur was sacked by the private university management after her video criticising Ram went viral. Kaur in the viral video can be seen saying, “Actually Ram is not a good person by heart. Ram is not a good person at all. Ravana is a good person. I find Ram is a cunning person. He made all the plans to trap Sita. He put Sita into trouble and put all the blame on Ravan. How can I decide who is good and evil, and the whole world is worshiping Ram and saying that Ravana is a bad person…”

Later, the Jalandhar-based university released a statement saying, “We understand that some people have been hurt by the video shared on social media where one of our faculty members can be heard sharing her personal opinion. We wish to clarify that the views shared by her are absolutely personal, and the university does not endorse any of them. We have always been a secular university, where people from all religions and faith are treated equally with love and respect. She has been relieved from the services with immediate effect. However, we deeply regret this whole incident.”

Interestingly, the context in which the statement was made is not clear from the video. Demand for sacking the professor gained momentum after the right wing troll army joined the fray.

The university’s chancellor Ashok Kumar Mittal was recently elected to the Rajya Sabha on the Aam Aadmi Party’s nomination.

The sacked professor has not made any statement so far.