Queer student in King’s College London targeted for supporting Hindu cause

Jagan  (name changed), a student from Kings College, London has revealed about how he was discriminated by one Alli, a Christian student in his college who is also an officer in the college’s KCLLGBT+ society. He said that he had been branded a ‘Hindu nationalist’ and accused of  ‘being against other religions’ for voicing out atrocities committed against Hindus.

In a social media post, he said he said that Alli had made discriminatory remarks against him and ‘doxed’ him for voicing out on Hindu persecution and other issues related to Hindu community.

“I am currently a Physics graduate student at KCL. I have been involved in the newly founded QPOCPROJECT, a multi-university project founded by a current 3rd year KCL student, since January 2021, which aims to provide queer people of colour a platform.” he introduced himself in the post.

He said that he was the Interfaith Representative on the committee until now, despite being closeted.

“I wanted to organise events centred around faith, culture and LGBTQ+ issues. I myself am very interested in Dharma and have tried to explore Dharma pertaining to LGBT issues many times and so I wanted to integrate Hindu and Indian LGBTQ+ people within this project too. I have helped organise an upcoming (tomorrow) event with a gay Hindu couple and have been finding many queer activists of different faiths (such as Islam etc) to be speakers.” he added.

He said that he was to organise a panel with one of the KCLLGBT+ society’s officers Alli, who he claims to be a ‘proud Christian’. He said that he had found speakers from the Hindu and Pagan faith backgrounds but Alli had left him hanging for 3 weeks with no information on how to proceed. When he asked his president, she told her that she had been avoiding him and did not want to collaborate because she thinks he was a ‘Hindu nationalist’ and was ‘against people of other religions’. Apparently, this conclusion was arrived based on the content Jagan shared on Instagram.

“My sharing has always been to raise awareness on Hindu issues, Hindu persecution, Hinduism without any political leaning nor hatred towards particular faith groups. But on the whole, the President of the QPOCPROJECT agrees that this is racist and is a form of Hinduphobia. I want to take this matter up with the Union because it has resulted in the President of the QPOCPROJECT (without any personal agenda, but from an organisation POV) to relieve me of my position to prevent any controversies within the organisation from arising. My ex-President was interested in supporting me initially with regards to contacting the Union and making a report, apparently, Alli has the evidence of my ‘Hindu nationalist and fascist posts that I shared and liked’ (which I find weird and stalkerish) but that evidence has not been made available to me to justify.” he said in his post.

He went on to say, “On the Instagram page ‘Hindusofcampus’, I made an anonymous submission about the incident, without posting personal details of any individuals nor organisations involved. Many individuals sympathised and empathised with the incident in the comment section. The page posted my submission, and the Vice President of the QPOCPROJECT (perhaps as suggested by the President of the QPOCPROJECT) found the post and ‘doxxed’ me, by exposing my sexual identity and making allegations of Islamophobia on me. He later threatened me further on WhatsApp. The crux of the matter was, that I had indirectly referred to a ‘Queer POC organisation’ due to which they felt the attack was made against them.”

Jagan explained that the submission made was in the context in which it occurred and that his issues were with the individual who had made bigoted allegations on him.

“I have not named the organisation (QPOCPROJECT), KCLLGBT nor any individuals. I was threatened that it could result in my ‘suspension’ off of my degree course. I felt very anxious and distressed by this personal attack made on social media, and I could not sleep through the night and felt I had to speak with a Union member urgently.” Jagan said.

He noted that formerly, the QPOCPROJECT, especially the President, had been very cordial and helpful in supporting him but the President has now blocked him on social media and is no longer reachable.

“My issues do not lie with the QPOCPROJECT at all, but it was very wrong (and ‘doxxing’ is illegal as per my knowledge) of the Vice President using threatening language against me. I would ideally prefer not to report the QPOCPROJECT, but rather to resolve these differences, and to focus on the report or disciplinary action being made against the individual – Alli – who has made discriminatory comments against me.” Jagan said.

Recently, an Indian student named Rashmi Samant quit as the President-elect of the Oxford Students Union, after her religious sentiments and regional background were targeted by a faculty in the college.

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