Complaint lodged against JNTU Hyderabad VC over alleged sexist remarks

Women faculty members of a private engineering college have lodged a police complaint against JNTU-Hyderabad Vice Chancellor Prof. T Kishen Kumar Reddy, alleging abusive, gender-discriminatory and intimidating behaviour during a meeting at the university.

Hyderabad: Women faculty members of a private engineering college filed a police complaint against Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (JNTU) – Hyderabad Vice Chancellor Prof. T Kishen Kumar Reddy, alleging his abusive, derogatory, gender-discriminatory, threatening and intimidating conduct during a meeting on October 6.

In a complaint lodged with Kukatpally Police Station on Wednesday, the women faculty members said that, after taking a prior appointment, they visited the university to invite Prof. Reddy to be the  chief guest for an event scheduled to be held on the college premises on October 30.

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Despite approaching with due respect in an entirely official and academic capacity, Prof. Reddy behaved in an aggressive, hostile and intimidating manner, they alleged.

“He further stated that during his two-day tenure as principal of the (their) institution, he wanted to remove all the women employees working there. He made sweeping and deeply derogatory remarks to the effect that women were fit for nothing and did nothing except impede or slow the institution’s progress,” they alleged.

The women faculty also alleged that, “Continuing in the same insulting and gender-discriminatory manner, he stated that women should not even approach him for the purpose of extending an invitation and further remarked, in substance, that women did not belong in academic or professional fields and should remain confined to their homes and give birth to children and look after them”.

Stating that they were shocked, humiliated and terrified by the Vice Chancellor’s alleged behaviour, they said, “This interaction was far beyond an ordinary disagreement or refusal of an invitation. It was disrespectful, humiliating and traumatic in nature”. They urged the police to initiate necessary action against Prof. Reddy.