New Delhi, April 07, 2023 (PPI-OT): A group of academicians has condemned Delhi University (DU) for its action on some students who had participated in the screening of the BBC documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India: The Modi Question.
In a letter to the vice-chancellor, 59 signatories, on behalf of the India Academic Freedom Network, requested the vice-chancellor of Delhi University to revoke the punishment given to the students. They said that “the punishment given [to the students] is disproportionate to the alleged violation” by them.
“We need not tell you that university is supposed to be a space where students and teachers feel free to get information from any source, decide for themselves and express themselves freely. They are adults and can take decisions for themselves. We, teachers and administrators are not here to police their thoughts or censor their sources of information., it said.
“The only condition we all must follow while exercising this right is that it should not promote hatred and violence. But the documentary was only a critical examination of the present regime in the context of the situation of Muslims. How could its screening by some students become a threat to order on the campus is beyond our understanding,” it added.
Two DU students were barred from the Delhi University for a year for allegedly helping in the campus screening of the BBC documentary on the 2002 Godhra riots. They won’t be allowed to take part in “any university or college or departmental examination or examinations for one year from the date of issue of the memorandum”.
In the memorandum issued on March 10, the DU registrar claimed that the BBC documentary India: The Modi Question is “banned”. However, the Union government had directed YouTube and Twitter to take down links to the documentary. “The documentary was never banned and is still not banned by the government,” said the letter by the India Academic Freedom Network.
Separately, the V-Dem Institute, in its 2023 update to its ‘Academic Freedom Index’, has noted that India is among 22 countries and territories out of 179 in the world, where institutions and scholars enjoy ‘significantly less freedom today than 10 years ago.’
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