The investigation committee set up by the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), the Congress’ students wing, will hold a meeting with Abhijeet Kaur, a national delegate from NSUI Chhattisgarh, to hear her sexual harassment allegations against NSUI president Fairoz Khan, in the first week of July.
Speaking to The Sunday Guardian, Kaur, based in Chhattisgarh, said, “I have a lot to say but I will say it in front of the committee. Right now, I will only talk about my complaint and not about any specific incidents. My last examination is on 3 July and after that, I will be travelling to New Delhi to meet the committee members and present my case. This is a much needed step.”
After Kaur’s email written to the senior leadership of the Congress went viral, NSUI’s national in-charge Ruchi Gupta announced that the party has decided to form an investigation committee of three members—Deepender Hooda, Sushmita Dev and Bhawmini Naik. In her statement to media, Gupta had said, “These are serious allegations and we are taking them up diligently. An investigation committee has been set up and they will take the matter further.”
In her email, Kaur objected to the delay caused by NSUI in setting up an Internal Complaints Committee (ICC). Kaur told this reporter, “Ruchi Gupta has been running campaigns to form an ICC, but there is no ICC in NSUI. I had tried to approach her and request to form ICC at the earliest, but honestly, she hardly ever receives calls. The only way for me was to write a complaint to the senior-most authority and I did.”
Kaur said that she has been part of NSUI for six years and had been a national delegate for four years. The first altercation between him and Khan took place in May when he called a meeting in Delhi, but she arrived late for the meeting after which Khan allegedly said that he could dismiss her from her position.
Kaur said, “We are often called to work for Delhi University Students’ Union’s various activities or to do preparations for Congress programmes. Visiting NSUI office is a common exercise for all the workers. My sister has been working with NSUI too; so she also is well acquainted with the people there. But we do not expect this kind of behaviour from anybody.”
Kaur refused to give details about the sexual harassment allegation that she has levelled against Khan in her email and said, “That I will talk about it when I am in front of the committee.”
While Abhijeet Kaur has come forward to talk about her complaints, Fairoz Khan has stayed out of bounds. Despite repeated attempts by The Sunday Guardian to meet and talk to him, there was no response to the messages and calls directed to him. Sources close to him, however, said that he was being targeted by a disgruntled member of the union and there was no truth in the allegations.
Khan’s aides have criticised Kaur’s decision to go to the media with her complaints instead of solving the matter internally. To which Kaur said, “It was never my intention. I wrote an email to four NSUI national leaders along with the office of Rahul Gandhi. The complaint via email was sent to these five people only on 10-11 June. How the media got it, I have no clue. I did not leak it. Somebody within the system leaked my email to the media.”
In her email to the senior leadership, Kaur wrote, “With profound grief, I am writing this to you to inform that I have been a worker of NSUI and National President Fairoz Khan has been abetting female members of the organisation to make sexual relationship with him in lieu of political posts.”
She further added, “The National President has not only mentally tortured me to compromise, but he has also mentally tortured my younger sister to come to his room. There are many other young female activists who also faced the same, but they have refrained from coming out publicly so that no other girl is molested or mentally tortured.”
The screen shots of WhatsApp conversations that Kaur attached in the email took place between her and Khan where Khan is seen inviting her over to the hotel he is staying at in Bangalore in May. In WhatsApp conversations, Kaur could be seen denying the invitation due to travel restrictions as her friends did not allow her to leave by herself late in the night.
Kaur said, “We were in Bangalore for campaigning and everybody was busy with election work. I was there with other NSUI members. The reason why the complaint has only my conversations and my name is because it was not possible for the other girls to take up this fight. So I registered a complaint.”