In what comes as an embarrassing development for former NDTV executive editor Nidhi Razdan, Harvard University has now come on record to state in no uncertain terms that they have nothing to do with all that the journalist faced in the past few months. Additionally, the Ivy League Institution has also revealed that they neither have any record nor knowledge about appointing any Nidhi Razdan as a faculty member. This has proven the fact that Nidhi was indeed a victim of a mediocre phishing attack, owing to which she gave up on her 21-years of association with NDTV.
Harvard University sources told Boston Globe that a review had found “no record of, nor any knowledge of, an appointment involving Ms Nidhi Razdan,” and the names referenced as members of human resources in the documents Razdan shared are not in Harvard’s employee systems. The job agreement document also had “a number of irregularities,” the University said.
Read more: Nidhi Razdan quit NDTV to join Harvard University as Associate Professor. Turns out, it was all fake
Earlier, Nidhi Razdan had alleged that she fell for the phishing attack due to the eerily similar nature of correspondence she received, making her believe that it was indeed Harvard University which was contacting her. Again, why Harvard University would contact a journalist at NDTV to work for them is not yet known, and why Nidhi fell for the same too is not comprehensible for many.
For the past eight months, ever since she quit NDTV, Nidhi Razdan has been appearing on NDTV and various other events under the banner of her being an Associate Professor of Journalism at Harvard. That Harvard offers no journalism courses directly is a separate matter altogether. Additionally, Nidhi Razdan also serves on the advisory board of Prateek Kanwal’s Kautilya School of Public Policy while claiming to be a faculty member of Harvard. On the board also, is Steve Jarding – Professor at Harvard Kennedy School. Why Jarding kept mum all this while on the issue of Razdan not being his colleague is not known.
Read more: There is something extremely ‘Phishy’ about Nidhi Razdan’s Harvard tragedy
The two-page statement released by Nidhi Razdan on Friday really seems to put it all out in the public domain. Yet, many questions remain unanswered, and Nidhi’s story continues to be replete with loopholes – some of which TFI has talked about in an earlier piece published today. With the journalist stating in no uncertain terms that she will not address the issue any further on social media, it seems that the questions will most definitely remain unanswered until the police probing the scam make disclosures. Srinagar Police, meanwhile, is said to have refused to file an FIR in the matter, citing that the case is not in the jurisdiction. Nidhi Razdan has been told to contact Delhi police with her complaint. Delhi Police comes under the direct control of Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), headed by Amit Shah.
