New Delhi: “I am Dawood Ibrahim that is why I am being hounded” St Stephen’s college principal Thampu said, expressing anguish over the “way” he is being “attacked” in connection with a research scholar’s sexual harassment case.
The statement was made by Thampu on Wednesday after a meeting with the Delhi Commission for Women in connection with the sexual harassment case of a woman PhD scholar. On being asked by a reporter of a TV channel on what was discussed in the meeting, Thampu ignored the question, choosing instead to scream “Main Dawood Ibrahim hoon (I am Dawood Ibrahim)” twice at the camera.
St. Stephen’s College Principal Valson Thampu has always been in the media spotlight, most often for the wrong reasons – according to him. Currently, the spotlight is on him in the sexual harassment case of a PhD student, who was allegedly harrased by her PhD guide.
When asked why he screamed into the TV that he was “Dawood Ibrahim”, Thampu said he was “clowning” to entertain a “bored society”. “I said that because my predicament is worse than Dawood Ibrahim. No other person has been systematically and persistently hounded like I have been in the last eight years. I chose to compare myself to Dawood Ibrahim because he is the ultimate symbol of what is completely unacceptable. There is no one more hated,” said Thampu. He said he decided to scream those words at the camera because he thought the reporter was “frustrated from the lack of scoop” and needed some “masala”.
Thampu, however, said he “liked” being hounded by the media, as it was one of the “major contemporary sports”. “I have no problem in being hounded; in fact I quite like it. I want the media and me to be partners in the public service of mass producing entertainment to mitigate the suffering of a society languishing in boredom,” he said.