KOLKATA/HARINGHATA (NADIA): A video clip of a professor of a Bengal govt-funded university, apparently marrying a first-year student in a classroom earlier this month, has gone viral, raising questions of propriety and prompting the institute to order an inquiry and send the teacher on leave.
Payal Banerjee, a former head of applied psychology at Maulana Abul Kalam Azad University of Technology (Makaut) in Nadia’s Haringhata, has said in her defence that she and the student were merely acting out a “wedding drama” during a freshers’ welcome event. She has threatened to sue a “jealous colleague” for releasing the clip without context in order to defame her.
TOI is not naming the student.
The clip shows Banerjee in bridal finery and the student – in a green sweatshirt – enacting wedding rituals. Teachers, other staff and students cheer the couple and take selfies. The “wedding” also had an e-invite, which listed a haldi ceremony on Jan 9 and a mehndi and sangeet ceremony on Jan 14.
Interim vice-chancellor Tapas Chakrabarty said an inquiry panel, comprising five faculty members, had been set up. But he said it was “surprising that a video of a Jan 16 event has flooded social media on Jan 28, twelve days later.”
Video circulated to malign my image: Accused prof
Payal Banerjee, a former head of applied psychology at Maulana Abul Kalam Azad University of Technology (Makaut), told TOI that the intention of releasing the clip now was “to malign my image.” “I even identified the person who did it, and I am taking help to take legal steps against the person,” she said.
The first-year student, who joined classes in Aug last year, did not respond to calls.
Banerjee also claimed that the e-invite had been made by students, and that she had no role in it.
She said her students had planned a cultural programme for the freshers’ welcome, in which the “wedding” was part of a skit. “They (the students) requested me to play the main character, and I agreed. Other faculty members knew about it and agreed to the programme; no one objected then. Students printed the card and planned the whole thing. My first-year students and I acted, following the script. This was nothing serious. I agreed only because the students requested me,” she added.
Several students defended Banerjee, saying this was also “psychodrama” – a therapeutic technique that uses role-playing to help people gain insight into their lives, an established psychology technique.
But several senior academics expressed surprise at how Banerjee – who has been teaching applied psychology for 13 years – felt the need to enact a wedding publicly with a first-year student, especially someone who has not yet attained legal marriageable age. “We have never felt the need for such wedding enactments in classrooms, with first-semester examinations scheduled from Jan 30. And why should Banerjee encourage such requests in the first place,” wondered a senior professor.
