The death of a first-year BA history student of St Stephen's College in Delhi from COVID-19 has triggered shock and sadness since Thursday.
Satyam Jha, who was 18, had died at a hospital in Kota on May 25 after being diagnosed with COVID-19 earlier this month. According to reports, Jha had been involved with the Ambedkar Study Circle activist group and was also associated with the college's Students' Federation of India (SFI) unit. The SFI unit in Delhi tweeted about Jha on Thursday, saying, “Comrade Satyam was an extremely promising human being with rare compassionate capabilities. He had also been elected as a member of the new Organising Committee of SFI St. Stephen's formed in April.”
Prominent alumni of St Stephen's College, such as journalist Sagarika Ghose and MP Shashi Tharoor, were among those who condoled his death.
His death was condoled by the principal of St Stephen's College, John Varghese, in a note on the college website. While the note by Varghese extensively talked of the indiscriminate nature of COVID-19 and the need to learn humility, an apparently critical reference to "blind leaders" was played up by many media outlets.
Varghese wrote, "The claims of belligerent and blind leaders who are immune to the suffering and deaths of simple people also show that we are veering off dangerously to becoming a cruel and insensitive race.”
On Friday, Varghese issued a statement on the college website, emphasising that the college did not encourage politics on its campus and did not recognise any political body, in an apparent reference to Jha's purported activism.
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The statement by Varghese also criticised sections of the media for choosing to "selectively interpret and report the communication of the principal". Varghese wrote, "I am deeply saddened by the divisive, mischievous and irresponsible nature of such media reports. Common sense and propriety demand that every communication be treated in its entirety, paying full attention to the context in which it is made."
