TRICHY: Tamil Nadu National Law University (TNNLU) vice-chancellor V Nagaraj has drawn fire for saying girl students wearing shorts invite “sexual harassment and creates a distraction for other students and faculty members”. Till late on Thursday, students wearing shorts and black were protesting on campus demanding an apology from Nagaraj, who had made similar remarks in 2016 when he was faculty member at NLSIU, Bengaluru.Nagaraj made the remarks at a meeting with class representatives on Wednesday. Furious students on Thursday morning stuck notices in the college condemning the statement. By evening, the students, holding placards that read ‘blame the mindset not clothes’, demanded the VC speak to them. He refused and a senior professor communicated to the students that “it was from a fatherly perspective” that Nagaraj made those comments.As the students refused to budge, Nagaraj came out to address the students by about 6pm. “Yesterday’s statement was taken out of context. I was speaking about admissions, the reputation of our university and asking students to promote it. In that context, I made a statement about dress code. No VC in the country has the courage to speak about dress code. In my personal opinion, if you want to improve the institution’s reputation, presentable dress may be one factor. I am not here to answer questions; I am here to say what I want to say. I am only answerable to my higher authorities,” Nagaraj told the students.“Are you distracted by our shorts, sir,” the students asked Nagaraj, who did not respond. He refused to speak to the media.Registrar SM Balakrishnan told TOI that the statement had been taken out of context and blown out of proportion by the students.Terming the administration’s response ‘irresponsible’, the students continued their protest even at 9pm, after the VC left the campus. “He left surrounded by security without answering us. We will be protesting overnight,” said one of the class representatives leading the protest. The students want an unconditional apology from Nagaraj and the creation of a student bar association.Meanwhile, the issue spread beyond Tamil Nadu, with students from the law university in Jodhpur issuing a statement condemning the incident. Nagaraj is scheduled to retire in a few months.
