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Bharatanatyam dancer Revathi Ramachandran has resigned as the director of Kalakshetra months after protests over inaction on sexual harassment complaints rocked the autonomous fine arts institute in Chennai under the Union culture ministry.
In a post on X on Thursday, the institute said Aneish Rajan on Wednesday replaced Ramachandran, who was appointed as the director in March 2018.
Ramachandran announced the closure of the institution, asked the students to vacate the hostel within two days, and postponed exams when the protests started on March 30.
The students were demanding action against four teachers for alleged sexual harassment. Hari Padman, an assistant professor, was arrested in April based on the complaint of an alumna. He was granted bail in June.
The institute’s governing board suspended Padman and dismissed instructors Sanjith Lal, Sai Krishnan, and Sreenath over the allegations.
A retired Punjab and Haryana high court judge K Kannan-led inquiry committee constituted over the allegations submitted its report in August describing Padman as a “delinquent employee” and recommended “major punishment”. The panel was set up as the students sought an independent probe alleging the institute’s management was protecting the accused.
On March 19, Kalakshetra released a statement saying its internal complaints committee found no truth in the allegations. Ramachandran maintained that the allegations were rumours intended to spoil the institution’s image.
Divya Chandrababu is an award-winning political and human rights journalist based in Chennai, India. Divya is presently Assistant Editor of the Hindustan Times where she covers Tamil Nadu & Puducherry. She started her career as a broadcast journalist at NDTV-Hindu where she anchored and wrote prime time news bulletins. Later, she covered politics, development, mental health, child and disability rights for The Times of India. Divya has been a journalism fellow for several programs including the Asia Journalism Fellowship at Singapore and the KAS Media Asia- The Caravan for narrative journalism. Divya has a master’s in politics and international studies from the University of Warwick, UK. As an independent journalist Divya has written for Indian and foreign publications on domestic and international affairs.