Meet Rashmi Samant, First Indian Woman President-elect Of Oxford Student Union

Who is Rashmi Samant: Rashmi Samant had almost become the first Indian woman to be elected as President-elect of Oxford University Student Union. She was forced to quit over a racism row. Now reports say she is weighing legal options against a faculty member.

She decided to step down after the students started demanding her resignation amidst racism row against her.

Samant' old social media post emerged in which she was seen making objectionable remarks. One of her social media posts seemed to be differentiating between women and trans women.

The Oxford Students Union Campaign for Racial Awareness and Equality (CRAE) and Oxford LGBTQ Campaign accused her of hurting the sentiments of various communities and insisted that she step down from her new post.

Here's what we know of Rashmi Samant:

• Rashmi Samant belongs to Udupi, Karnataka and she went to Manipal University to pursue an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering.
• At Oxford University, she goes to the Linacre College where she is doing a masters in science course in energy systems.
• She won a landslide victory in Oxford University Student Union elections and got elected as the President. In her manifesto, Samant had talked about decolonising and decarbonising the university space. She also talked about more inclusivity on the campus.
• In an old post emerged online, Samat had shared a picture of her in Malaysia and had captioned it "Ching Chang". This offended the Chinese students of the university. Her resignation was also demanded by the campus' LGBTQ+ community over her objectionable remarks on trans women.
• According to reports, Samant has come back to her parents in Karnataka and most of her social media accounts have been deleted.
• Samant wasn't the only Indian woman elected in the Student Union of 2021-22, she was accompanied by Vice-President-elect Devika and Dhitee Goel, Student-Trustees elect.
• Samant is a Global Leadership Initiative Fellow at Oxford University, an opportunity given to students of diverse backgrounds.
• She is also the General Secretary and co-founder of Oxford Aviation Society.
• Rashmi Samant has worked as a research intern in Prague and Poland on projects of atomic science.