Hate Becomes a Campus Event
Apoorvanand | 15 September 2025 | Frontline
The private chat groups of students at Lady Shri Ram (LSR) College explode with anger and disgust. Alumni, too, are deeply troubled. Their outrage stems from an event held at their college by the Department of BA Programme, where a former diplomat, Deepak Vohra, delivered an address steeped in misogyny, caste prejudice, and crude communalism. The accounts of his speech are nauseating to read. That such statements could be made from the platform of an institution regarded as among the finest centres of learning in the country seems almost unbelievable. Imagine: a supposedly respected speaker declaring himself “Modi’s chamcha, maha chamcha,” ridiculing Muslims, using vulgar language for women, even as the principal claps and dances in approval. What could be more degrading?
Yet what cuts deeper is the response of the audience. The laughter, the applause, the scramble afterwards to take photographs and seek autographs from the hate-spewing speaker—these wounded more than the speech itself. It is true that by now Delhi University and other institutions frequently invite speakers who spread caste hatred, communal venom, and bigotry…