Racism stopped Indian student from contesting polls in London School of Economics

Calling the disqualification decision, a “violation of the principles of natural justice”, Indian student Karan Kataria on April 7 said that the campus termed him as Islamophobic, transphobic and racist.

On the basis of this, he was conveniently disqualified without his side of the story being heard or the votes he received being revealed. Also, he alleged that a smear campaign was launched against him after he was debarred from the Law School of London School of Economics elections.

Speaking on the matter, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal condemned the incident and wrote to the Indian High Commission in the UK regarding a probe into the incident and Karan Kataria’s safety.

In an exclusive interview with ANI, Karan Kataria said, “I approached the LSE Student Union to come out and help me but they turned a blind eye that this is not related to the election and it doesn’t have any relation with any of the candidates. They accepted that the bullying and defamation happened. They haven’t come out with a public statement condemning this rather, they disqualified me from the campaign.”

“A smear campaign was launched against me on 24th March, going on to my character assassination, to defamation. WhatsApp groups of many societies and departmental groups were flooded with the forward messages terming me as Islamophobic, transphobic and racist,” he added.

“Karan Kataria is a law student studying in the UK. He enrolled himself to contest in the student elections but he was disqualified citing a reason that is so low standard. I have condemned the incident and wrote to the High Commission there regarding a probe into the incident and Karan Kataria’s safety. They have responded and have assured that they won’t let this happen and look into it. I met his family and have assured all the help from my side,” said ML Khattar.