‘Is this a joke?’ NIT Durgapur professor stops students dancing to ‘Chikni Chameli’

NIT Durgapur Students Dance To ‘Chikni Chameli’, Professor Stops Them: ‘Is This A Joke?’What started as a fun performance at a freshers’ programme at NIT Durgapur suddenly became awkward when a professor walked in and stopped a group of students dancing to ‘Chikni Chameli’.The students were on stage, their classmates were cheering, and everything seemed to be going as planned. Until the professor interrupted.She questioned the students about whether they had taken permission for the performance.“Have you taken approval before showing this kind of dance here? Is it a joke?” she asked.She then asked where their faculty advisor was and why the students were performing the song in front of their juniors.“Where is your faculty advisor? In front of juniors, you are dancing to these songs? Why are your faculty advisors not present? Was it approved?”That was enough to bring the auditorium to a standstill. The cheering stopped, and the students tried to explain themselves as the professor continued questioning the performance.A video of the moment has since spread across social media after being shared by education consultant Gourob Roy on Instagram.And people watching the video can’t quite agree on who was in the right.Some users said the professor had a point. A freshers’ induction is an official college event, they argued, and not every song or dance necessarily fits that setting. One commenter said such performances also reflect the institution’s culture and the impression it leaves on parents and prospective students.But others felt the students hadn’t really done anything wrong.“Are they school children? Why can’t they dance to any song? It’s their function to enjoy,” one user wrote.Another said the professor may have been right about the choice of song but questioned the way she dealt with it. If the performance was inappropriate, they argued, the students could have been spoken to privately rather than being called out in front of the entire auditorium.Some even worried that such public criticism could make students lose confidence, especially when they’re performing in front of their peers for the first time.There were also plenty of people who sided completely with the professor, saying students should know that certain performances may not be suitable for formal college events.So now the video has turned into a familiar college debate: Should students be free to choose what they perform, or do official campus events come with certain limits?And judging by the comments, there’s no easy answer.