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14 July 2023
IISER Mohali administration has issued showcause notices to two faculty members. IISER-M is a premier research university under MoE. The professors are charged with signing a petition regarding the cancellation of a public talk on UAPA in the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru. The showcause notice alleges that is in violation of Central Civil Services rules.
Prime Minister Modi boasts of the vibrancy of Indian democracy in front of international media but academic freedoms are rapidly shrinking in the country. What is happening in IISER is part of a new wave of attacks on campuses–in just a month we have seen the suspension of four SAU and one Jamia faculty member, the termination of a Kolhapur Law College professor for saying rapists do not have a particular religion, RSS-Bajrang Dal’s attacks on a convent school principal in Maharashtra and the police case against a Manipuri professor in HCU for a social media post.
Furthermore, any science institute has the purpose of inculcating inquisitive and critical minds. The basic tenets of science teaches us to be critical and doubtful of everything existing. It is ironic that such notices, where we are compelled to comply with notices without questions and criticisms come from science institutes. While science institutes should have taken the role of serving the people with critical enquiry, we see that they are being turned into lifeless prisons divorced from the needs of society. Invoking CCS rules only worsens the matter. Students and practitions of science in this country should be at arms against invoking of CCS rules against professors to choke their democratic voices.
COLLECTIVE strongly condemns the developments in IISER-M. We stand with every student, teacher and citizen rising up against such unjust and undemocratic actions in IISER and outside, towards building a movement to scrap draconian laws such as UAPA.
Issued by: Com. Shambhavi (General Secretary) and Com. Amartyajyoti (Joint Secretary) on behalf of COLLECTIVE Delhi State Committee.
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