An American university has paid a compensation of Rs 1.8 crore to an Indian couple who faced racial discrimination for heating palak paneer in the microwave. The whole controversy started from heating Palak Paneer in the university’s microwave.
America: The university has given compensation of $ 200,000 (about Rs 1.8 crore) to an Indian couple who faced racial discrimination for heating palak paneer in the microwave. This compensation has been received by Indian student Aditya Prakash and his wife Urmi Bhattacharya, doing PhD at Colorado Boulder University. A staff member had confronted the student for heating Indian food in the university’s common microwave. Following the incident, the couple claimed that they were harassed at the university.
The university has agreed to pay the couple $200,000 and release their master’s degrees that were put on hold after the incident. This entire incident happened on September 5, 2023. At that time, Prakash was doing his PhD in the Department of Anthropology and it had only been a year since he had joined the university. The controversy started when Palak Paneer was heated in the university’s microwave.
At that time, a staff member passing by told Prakash that the smell of Palak Paneer was unbearable and it should not be heated in the common microwave. In response, Prakash said that he was just heating his food and would leave as soon as it was hot, and this facility is for everyone. But, after this incident the couple says that they faced racial discrimination and insults. He said that the authorities harassed him, stopped his degree and removed Urmi, who was pursuing her PhD, from the post of teaching assistant. He also alleged that the behavior of the officers and others was such that it became difficult to survive there.
Later, the couple filed a case in federal court against the university, citing racial discrimination. After the verdict was in favor of the couple, the university compensated them. However, the university has also decided that now they will not be given admission there in any way. At the same time, the couple who returned to India after this incident say that they have no interest in going back there or facing such a situation.