Delhi boy to fight Oxford lifetime ban ‘till very end’

LONDON: Krishna Omkar, the Delhi boy uniquely barred for life from ever contesting elections to lead the Oxford Union, one of the world's oldest and arguably most prestigious university nurseries for world leaders, has questioned his punishment "with the harshest sentence in the Union's 185-year history". In robust remarks to TOI Omkar - who would have been only the second Indian after Montek Singh Ahluwalia to win the Union's presidency had he been allowed to take up his post on March 1 - said out he was elected with the "biggest mandate of any candidate in 185 years". He vowed on Thursday to "keep fighting until the very end", reiterating that it was rank "prejudice" by the Union's Election Tribunal "to inflict a lifetime bar from candidature ... based not on the nature of the 'malpractice' as found, but...because they thought me 'arrogant'." Omkar's comments are seen by some observers as deeply damaging to a university debating society that has long welcomed speakers from around the world and been led from time to time by people of different races and ethnicity, not least the late Benazir Bhutto. Some believe that at least some of the ongoing kerfuffle over the Union's election is a result of bitter in-fighting in a bid to allow the current treasurer to walk into the president's post uncontested with Omkar safely removed from the reckoning. But Omkar, who says he places immense value on his dearest wish – to lead the Union – because "seven British prime ministers were there and so was Bhutto and (the distinguished late Sri Lankan foreign minister) Lakshman Kadirgamar", insists the Union's troubles are relevant to the wider world because "it is supposed to be about free speech, fair play and democracy". Omkar firmly rejected any suggestion that he or his supporters ever sent or sanctioned sexually explicit text messages to his rival for the post of president, Charlotte Fischer. Omkar agreed that the Union's history was littered with examples of racial and cultural inclusiveness but said he was hard put to understand why he faces a lifetime ban for "doing something (holding a meeting of 25 friends and supporters) that every Union president in history has done - including the sitting president and her predecessor, as well as my opponent who brought the charges against me - all of whom testified to having done so". Omkar said in this, his seventh term at Oxford, he had seen repeated instances of the same sort of campaigning he legitimately pursued. Omkar's eight-week ban is the harshest in the Union's history with the most severe imposed for only three terms on candidate-for-president Matt Richardson in 2004-2005. But Omkar says he may be down but not out and is determined to move a remarkable motion at the Union on February 7 to create the society's first-ever scale of sentencing, a procedure for lodging an appeal against an unfair decision and seek to nullify a lifetime ban. Sources close to Omkar say he has urgently to fly to Delhi because his mother "is unwell and on her own" and has found it frustrating that the Union's current crop of office-bearers are trying to stymie his fightback by insisting his motion be debated on February 14 when Omkar will be far away in Delhi.