LUCKNOW: The Uttar Pradesh government has removed Kanpur’s Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi Medical College (GSVM) principal Dr Aarti Dave Lalchandani from her post in the wake of a controversial video that went viral last week.
As per the order, Dr Lalchandani has been attached with the office of Director General, Medical Education. Dr RB Kamal has replaced Dr Lalchandani as officiating principal of the medical college on Thursday.
Last week also there were rumours that Dr Lalchandani was transferred to Jhansi Medical College but later it was denied.
Notably, the axe has fallen on Dr Lalachandani following a video in which she was seen purportedly launching a diatribe against the members of Tablighi Jamaat and had accused the state government of pursuing the politics of “appeasement” and wasting resources on them as they were responsible for the surge in the COVID-19 cases in the state. She was even seen comparing the jamatis with terrorists.
It may be recalled that Markaz of Tablighi Jamaat, the Islamic missionary movement, in Delhi in late March had emerged as a huge COIVD-19 cluster. According to the UP health department, at one point of time, over 50 per cent COVID-19 cases in the state were linked to Tablighi Jamaat members and their contacts.
According to sources, the action against Dr Lalchandani was taken after Kanpur District Magistrate Brahm Dev Tiwari submitted his report on the controversy to Principal Secretary (Medical Education) Rajneesh Dube. The Kanpur DM had ordered a probe into the veracity of Dr Lalchandani’s video which, as per her claim, was shot stealthily around 70 days ago.
Following the controversy, Lalchandani claimed that the video was morphed by a local journalist in Kanpur who had been allegedly trying to use it to extort money and draw administrative favours.
Claiming that she did not use words such as Tablighi or Muslims in the video, Lalchandani had said she would get an FIR registered against the journalist for filming the video and blackmailing her. However, no FIR has been registered till date.
After the controversy broke out, Lalchandani had released a video statement saying that she had “special love” for the minority community and had taught many Muslims students. She also said that many Muslim patients thanked the staff after their recovery. She had also released a letter apologising for “hurting the
feelings of Muslim brothers and sisters”.