Classroom 'wedding' puts Bengal professor in a spot

KOLKATA/HARINGHATA: An assistant professor of applied psychology at Bengal's Maulana Abul Kalam Azad University of Technology has been sent on leave and ordered to face an inquiry over a set of viral videos showing her decked out as a bride and exchanging garlands with a first-year student during a purported "wedding psychodrama " inside a classroom. Payal Banerjee, the teacher seen in the videos, said Wednesday that she had resigned and would be initiating legal action against "a jealous colleague" allegedly out to malign her. She said her students conceptualised the mock wedding as part of a freshers' welcome event on Jan 16 and that she played along, not knowing a scandal would erupt over videos allegedly circulated by her unnamed colleague 12 days later.

"They (the students) requested me to play the main character, and I agreed. Other faculty members knew about it and agreed to the programme; no one objected then. My first-year students and I acted per the script.



There was nothing serious about it," she said. An e-invitation designed for the "psychodrama" mentions Jan 9 as the date for the "haldi ceremony" and Jan 14 for "mehndi and sangeet". The "wedding day" was Jan 20.

The events purportedly took place inside the same classroom at the institute's campus in Haringhata, around 60km from Kolkata. The invitation features photos of the teacher "bride" and the student "groom" clinging to each other. Around 23 small videos purportedly depict the various ceremonies, with faculty, other staffers and students cheering the duo.

"Some people have used this as a weapon against me. I know who did it because I received plenty of complaints against that person who played this game and shared the video(s) to take revenge," Banerjee said. Interim vice-chancellor Tapas Chakrabarty said the inquiry committee consists of five senior faculty members.

"It is surprising that videos of a Jan 16 event suddenly flooded social media on Jan 28." The first-year student, who joined the institute last Aug, did not respond to calls. Several students defended their teacher, saying it was normal in psychodrama to use role-play to help people gain insights into their lives.

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