'Don't Regret It': UP Teacher Sacked Allegedly For Joining Jantar Mantar Protest

In videos accessed by The Quint, Bhardwaj could be heard sloganeering: “Whenever Modi gets scared, he pushes the police forward, and “Dharmendra Pradhan, give your resignation.” These are some of the most common slogans we have heard at Jantar Mantar in these protests.

Bhardwaj has completed two years at the Ganna Utpadak PG College which is affiliated to the Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Rohilkhand University.

He said that he faced lathis and tear-gas during the 20 July protest which had witnessed a brutal police crackdown on the protestors leaving several injured and hospitalised, as The Quint also reported.

Bhardwaj said the decision to remove him was not officially taken by the University but the Chairman of the Ganna college society, Rajendra Kumar.

The Quint accessed the letter handed to him by the committee stating, “You are informed that, after receiving repeated complaints about you, the committee has decided to expel you from the college with immediate effect. Therefore, you are expelled from the college…”

The reason given for his termination is false and misleading, alleges Bhardwaj.

Moreover, Bhardwaj said that after he was sacked, many students were also shocked and reached out him.

“The WhatsApp groups were filled with messages expressing concern and solidarity from the students. But then I was removed from those groups by the HoD. When I questioned the HoD, she said, ‘You are a good teacher but if I don’t remove you from these groups then I will be sacked too.'”

Reading the messages of students has also strengthened his resolve to fight for the students.

“I have no regrets that I stood with the students. I had tears in my eyes reading messages of my students who were shocked that I have been sacked from my job,” he said.

But why did Bhardwaj choose to go to the Protest?

As it turns out, even reaching Delhi for the protest was not a cakewalk for him.