Student barred from LSE poll for being 'Hindu and Indian'

Allegations abound about a London School of Economics professor known to Rahul Gandhi orchestrating the campaign against the student.

- DIBYENDU MONDAL

A 22-year-old Indian student was barred from the Students' Union election in the London School of Economics (LSE) in the UK after an "orchestrated" and "deliberate" campaign smearing his Hindu and Indian identity.

Karan Kataria was contesting the Students' Union election and was running a high-voltage campaign, which was drawing a lot of international as well as Indian students in his favour, claimed Karan and his peers. However, according to Karan, a smear campaign against him was launched in a "pre-planned" manner on the last day of voting, i.e on 24 March, accusing him of being "Islamophobic", "homophobic", "far-right", "fascist" and a part of "Islamophobic organisations in India", referring to the RSS.

"Several WhatsApp messages started to be forwarded to our student groups at around 11 am on 24 March and that was the last day of voting. These messages targeted Karan and his Indian, Hindu identity. They termed him as Islamophobic, fascist, homophobic. A photo of Karan with his friend that had the picture of Bharat Mata and RSS founders in the background was being shared and he was being termed as someone who comes from a country that is fascist. And most of these people sharing and reacting to those messages were Indian. The messages were shared in such a way that it seemed it was all well planned," Tejashwini, a post-graduate student from LSE, told The Sunday Guardian over phone.

The Sunday Guardian also went through some of the WhatsApp chats that were allegedly being forwarded against Karan Kataria to discredit him in the election. One of the WhatsApp messages reads, "Urgent Appeal: Karan Kataria, LSESU candidate for General Secretary, has links to the Indian farright fascist organisation. He is likely a member of the far-right queerphobic and Islamophobic organisation in India. His book was also released by RSS leader J. Nandkumar and published by Indus scrolls which publishes hateful contents against minorities..."