The feud is only growing between Girish Chandra Tripathi, the Vice Chancellor of Banaras Hindu University and TV journalist Rajdeep Sardesai.
In two now-deleted tweets, Sardesai criticised Tripathi for allegedly attending PM Nardenra Modi’s roadshow in Varanasi on 4 March. “Shocked: BHU VC Mr Tripathi joins @PMOIndia on a political roadshow and at kashi vishwanath temple.”
However, it later turned out to be a case of mistaken identity and Tripathi did not attend the roadshow. Sardesai later deleted the tweets.
Sardesai also tweeted out his apology to the VC, citing “mistaken identity” as the reason for his initial, impassioned reaction.
In the past, Tripathi has been criticised for his RSS links and his attempts to “saffronise” the university. The VC maintains that while he’s a proud member of the RSS, he has not tried to “saffronise” BHU. On the allegations of being a part of the said rally, he told News18 he was watching it on TV at home at the time.
One malicious journalist started the whole thing by spreading lies on Twitter. If he comes to the campus again he will be thrashed properly. Wo vidhivat peete jaayenge. Bilkul peete jaayenge (They will systematically beaten up). I will not allow anyone to spread lies about me or the institution.
Calling them malicious allegations, he said he is ready for any punishment if the claims turn out to be true.
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