Banned e-zine: St Stephen’s strips editor of award

Amidst a controversy over the banning of a student e-zine by St Stephen’s principal Valson Thampu, its editor has now been stripped of a prize he was supposed to have received later this week from Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. Devansh Mehta, the editor and co-founder of the banned magazine — ‘St Stephen’s Weekly’ — is a third-year Philosophy student who was selected by its faculty for the Rai Saheb Banarsi Das Memorial Prize. He was to have received the prize from Kejriwal, who will be the chief guest at the college’s graduation ceremony.

The said prize is awarded to an undergraduate student in Philosophy or Economy at the college who has shown a high standard of personal conduct and marked degree of curricular and co-curricular interaction. “The person has misbehaved... the disciplinary committee has also said this in a report that he is guilty of misconduct and insulted the college. How can we award him?” Thampu said. “No one has denied him, he has disqualified himself for... the citation of which says it is for good conduct.
How can person found guilty of misconduct be given such an award?” he asked. Thampu ordered banning of the e-zine, started by a group of four college students, for not taking his clearance regarding an interview and appointed a one-man disciplinary committee to look into the matter.