Indian-Origin Student Alleges ‘Biased’ Probe on Hate Campaign at UK University for Being 'Right-Wing'

London: Satyam Surana, an Indian student in the United Kingdom, has alleged hate campaigns and smear attempts against him during the college elections at the London School of Economics (LSE). He has accused the institution of showing biased treatment towards him.

Surana claimed that the prestigious institution has deliberately ignored substantial evidence of hate campaigns against him, labeling the inquiry process as unfair and biased.

Speaking to ANI, Surana detailed his allegations, saying that despite providing "irrefutable evidence" to the university’s authorities, all the charges were ignored. The authorities dismissed his submissions as “insufficient,” while remarks made by the accused students were categorized under “freedom of expression.”

Surana, who gained prominence for retrieving the Indian Tricolour during an attack on the Indian High Commission in the United Kingdom by Khalistani extremists in 2023, had previously spoken out against alleged hate and smear campaigns targeted at him during the student union elections at LSE.

The Pune-born student, who had also practiced at the Bombay High Court for several months, was pursuing an LLM at LSE at the time of the alleged incident.

“Immediately after experiencing harassment, hate, bullying, and doxing, I approached the university's authorities for redress and through every available mechanism. I contacted security and the department to retain security footage, from obtaining CCTV footage of the accused students marking my posters on campus to reporting the hate messages and abuse I received on various social media platforms,” he said.

He alleged that the university deliberately prolonged the investigation to favor the accused students, as many of them graduated during the long duration.

“This incident occurred around March 2024, and now, in January 2025, I received a decision in late December 2024. The authorities at LSE decided not to uphold the allegations I made. They claimed that the evidence submitted was insufficient and that of all the multiple incidents I reported, they focused on one specific incident involving scribblings on my poster. They stated that the security footage was unavailable, and the student involved was no longer enrolled at the college. As a result, they could take no action. They ignored nearly every other incident I reported,” Surana explained further.

Surana added that despite providing the university with screenshots of the ‘hate messages,’ course IDs of the accused students, and their social media handles—at the request of the university itself—the evidence was deemed “insufficient,” which Surana describes as a “clear misinterpretation” of the records.

He further accused the university of “willfully and deliberately” delaying the investigation over several months, aiming to “favor the people involved in the hate campaign.” Surana also pointed out that most of the allegations he made were dismissed as part of the ‘freedom of expression’ and 'free speech' argument.

“They (the university) simply stated that students are free to express their thoughts and opinions, but there should be some limitations,” Surana said, adding that some highly controversial remarks were made about him and his identity.

“I was heckled with a slogan, ‘We don’t want a Hindu nationalist or an Indian nationalist to be elected to the student union.’ Here, my Hindu identity is being questioned, my proud Indian identity is being questioned. Putting aside the political aspect, this is an attack on my religious identity, but the university justified it in their decision letter, stating that this falls within the legitimate exercise of freedom of speech and expression. How can spewing venom against one religious identity be considered part of freedom of speech?” he added.

Pointing to another incident, Surana said he was warned by the university for his social media posts, in which he claimed to have highlighted how the “Palestine movement was used to sympathize with radical Islamist terrorist organizations.”

“This is the double standard that these universities apply when dealing with cases of Hinduphobia compared to cases of Islamophobia,” he said. Surana also alleged that major global universities have been “hijacked” by “left-wing ideology,” which they are using to spread anti-India sentiment among Indian students. “This is not the first incident I’ve faced. There have been multiple similar incidents in the past, whether at Oxford, LSE, or other universities. This systematic pattern highlights an important issue: these campuses are not open to people who are vocal about their Hindu identity, Indian identity, or any ideology that conflicts with their well-established left-wing ideology,” Surana said.

He continued, “We have faculty members who consistently maintain an anti-India stance, and many others in different universities as well. Their anti-India sentiment stems from their anti-Hindu views, which, as a political ideology, have now manifested in different forms of urban naxalism. They are using this to brainwash groups of young Indian students and turning them into what we may call urban nationals or Maoist terror sympathizers. This is why they have hijacked academia.”

(With Inputs from ANI)