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Alleging that St Stephen’s College has recruited ‘undeserving’ Christian teachers, a group of former students on Tuesday asked the Supreme Council and Governing Body of the college to constitute a probe against principal Valson Thampu.

 Seven out of the eight new appointees are Christians, the Old Stephanians Association, which is not recognised by the college, claimed. St Stephen’s is a minority institution and therefore exempted from state policies on reservation with the sole exception of reservation for persons with disability.

“The Stephanians are aghast with the way the principal has used the canard of minority rights and protection of interests of Christians by deliberately selecting undeserving teachers just because they belong to a certain minority community,” the group said in a statement.

Two appointments each in English, Physics and Economics departments, and one appointment each in Chemistry and History were made during the last few weeks. All except one in Economics department are Christians, the group said.

The statement issued by the alumni association was marked to the Chairman of National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions, General Secretary, Synod, Church of North India and Secretary, Diocese of Delhi.

The Old Stephanians Association has also sought the intervention of eminent college alumni including former Chief Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi, former Delhi Lokayukta Justice Manomohan Sarin and Congress leaders Shashi Tharoor and Manishankar Aiyar.
But Quraishi expressed his apprehension, saying that the association might be jumping the gun. “The issue has been referred to the authorities who are capable of taking the appropriate action,” he said.

“We demand that Supreme Council and Governing Body of the St Stephen’s College set up an independent inquiry. All decisions taken by Thampu after he became Principal, be reviewed through an independent inquiry,” the association said.
However, Principal Valson Thampu remained unavailable for his comments.