By Raqib Hameed Naik, TwoCircles.net
New Delhi: The Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) administration is increasingly becoming intolerant to the idea of students and teachers expressing themselves on any issue. A few days after it sent a show-cause notice to a student over a Facebook post, it has now cancelled a public meeting because the students had invited faculty from JNU and DU to speak. This comes a day after the administration had given permission for the meeting.
The public meeting on “Shrinking democratic spaces in universities” was supposed to be held on September 14 at the Safdar Hashmi open air theatre. The meeting was to be addressed by nine speakers which included SAM Pasha (Professor, JMI), Neshat Quaisar (Professor, JMI), Apoorvanand (Professor DU) , Saroj Giri (Professor, DU), A.K. Rama Krishnan (Professor, JNU) , Harish Dhawan (PUDR), Subhashini Shreya (Pinjra Tod), Sushil Kumar (DSU) and Ehtamamul Haque (DISSC).
“Initially they had given us all the permission, but suddenly yesterday we received an intimation from Proctor and DSW office that we can’t hold the event. They asked us to drop the speakers who were not from the university and offered us a go ahead if we have three speakers that too from Jamia only,” said Md Aman Qurashi, Jamia student and one of the organisers.
The students on Thursday held a protest against Jamia authorities outside central canteen, where speakers castigated the stifling of free speech in the campus.
“By denying us the permission to hold the event, Jamia authorities have shown that they are trying to choke free speech in the campus and we won’t let that happen. When a person like Indresh Kumar is allowed on the campus, why not professors from JNU and DU,” said Student activist Talha Rehman.
Besides, the university on Tuesday, September 12 issued a notification wherein it declared the administrative having offices of vice chancellor besides other administrative officers out of bounds for Dharnas, demonstration and procession by the students.