The controversy surrounding Lakshmibai College took a dramatic turn on Tuesday after Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) president Ronak Khatri smeared cow dung at the office walls of Lakshmibai College Principal Pratyush Vatsala — giving her, pretty literally, a flavor of the same treatment she had done with students.
The protest came in reaction to a viral video that confirmed Vatsala coating school room partitions with cow dung to “beat the heat” — a pass she later defended as a part of a school-led research mission on sustainable cooling methods.
DU’s Union President confront Lakshmibai College Principal
In a video from Tuesday’s incident, Khatri and a group of students may be seen confronting a college member in the principal’s office, disturbing accountability and thinking about the lack of student consent to use ‘gobar’ in the classroom. “No consent was taken from students for such an initiative. If you want to do studies, do it at your home,” Khatri stated.
Taking to X after the incident, Khatri doubled down on his complaint and said that he had long gone to ‘help’ Principal Pratyush Vatsala by plastering her office walls too. “We have full faith that madam will now get the AC eliminated from her room and hand it over to students, and run the college in this contemporary and natural cool surroundings smeared with cow dung,” he wrote.
What Pratyush Vatsala Said
The Lakshmibai College Principal, responding to the grievance on April 13, defended the act as a part of an ongoing college-led research undertaking investigating indigenous and sustainable cooling strategies. “It is under manner. I can be able to share details of the overall studies after a week,” she told in news. She also add that her moves had been being misinterpreted without context. “There’s no problem in touching natural mud,” she said.
The Delhi University management has yet to issue a professional response to Tuesday’s incident. However, it has previously indicated that the initiative is rooted in a medical inquiry into sustainable options for temperature law, mainly applicable amid growing heat levels in Delhi.
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