UDUPI: Rashmi Samant, an alumna of Manipal Institute of Technology, MAHE, who created history by winning the prestigious Oxford Student Union Presidency on February 11, has quit the post after she was embroiled in a controversy over her alleged insensitive comments on social media that some termed ‘racist’.
Though Rashmi reportedly posted those comments a long time back, pressure was mounted on her to apologize and quit from the post. The first ever Indian woman to occupy the post resigned on Tuesday.
Rashmi is a graduate student of MSc in energy systems at Linacre College, Oxford University. She ran for the post of Oxford SU President with four main priorities: decolonization and inclusivity, COVID interventions for all, access to quality mental health resources and decarbonizing the university.
The election saw 4,881 students cast 36,405 votes, an SU record as it was the highest voter turnout ever. Rashmi received 1966 of the 3708 cast for the position of President, more than all the other candidates combined, in a landslide victory. She had said she wanted to lobby with the University and Conference of Colleges to remove statues of people proven to be imperialist, including Christopher Codrington’s.
Rashmi was active on Instagram and someone on the same platform noticed one of her old posts and objected to it. Subsequently, the 22-year-old decided to resign and head to India on vacation as she boarded a flight from Heathrow airport on Wednesday.
In a post about the Berlin Holocaust Memorial in 2017 that her critics objected to, Rashmi said, “The memorial *CASTS* a *HOLLOW* dream of the past atrocities and deeds…” In another post of herself outside a Buddhist temple in Malaysia, she had written “Ching Chang”, allegedly mocking Chinese students who thought it was an offensive term.
In her apology that was published in ‘The Oxford Student’, Rashmi said that she acknowledged her shortcomings over the years. "I am willing to learn and apologize," she stated. As she has resigned from the post of president, there will be a by-election.