Refuting all charges of advising the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) to issue a directive to its girl students to wear "decent" clothes, Madhya Pradesh university Vice-Chancellor Tariq Zafar on Monday said he advised the college director not to let students smoke inside college premises.
"I have not commented any such thing as "decent clothing." I was on a round in the university when I saw a few students smoking. I asked them not to do so, after which they threw their smokes," said Zafar.
"I wrote a letter to the Director of the NIFT stating that smoking is prohibited in the college premises under University Grant Commission (UGC) norms. I urged him to prevent students from smoking in the campus," he added.
Asserting that he did not comment on the issue of clothes, Zafar said he was in favour of girls dressing up according to Indian culture.
"I did not mention anything about clothing in the letter. But personally I am of the opinion that students should dress according to Indian traditions. But, I have not passed any order related to it," he said.
Also Read
The students of the college were, however, of the opinion that if a direction of such a sort was given, then the concerned person should define the meaning of "decent."
"We all have only one point- whosoever has said that girls should wear decent clothes- we want him to define what "decent clothes" are. Also, we are studying fashion technology, so experimenting with clothes is a part of our academics," said Naina, a student of NIFT.
Another student, Tanusha, also mentioned the same, adding that according to them nobody wore indecent clothes in the college.
"They should define what do they mean by "decent". I don't think anybody in the college wears revealing clothes," she said.
The vice-chancellor drew flak when the reports of him asking the NIFT to direct students to dress up properly started doing the rounds yesterday.
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content
