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The festival was organised after a gap of two years due to Covid-19 pandemic. The last festival was held in 2019.
Muhammad Raafi | TwoCircles.net
NEW DELHI — The authorities at the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) on Sunday cancelled the proceedings of a three-day literary festival that was being organised by the students at the varsity.
An official at the Public Relations Office of the university said that the event, that commenced on May 20, was cancelled due to “unavoidable” circumstances and refused to comment further.
What is this? What are the reasons?
Note: One of the reasons they were worried was about the outing of "female students" and alleged that there will be some (in lighter vein), law and order thing (within the campus) pic.twitter.com/doJMNJF2iW
— Areeb Uddin (@Areebuddin14) May 21, 2022
On Saturday, the University authorities had attempted to impede the event but due to persistent protests by the varsity students, the event was allowed to go on.
AMU Literary Festival 6.O, the India's largest Student organized Literary Festival is being cancelled by University admin.
We weren't even informed about reason, we came and found Proctorial team here and Kennedy Auditorium was locked.
Why these hindrances? pic.twitter.com/2nM7cPs71F
— Sajid Bukhari (@sajidbukharii) May 21, 2022
Sajid Bukhari, a student leader of the varsity told TwoCircles.net that on Saturday a notification was circulated saying the event stands postponed due to overcrowding.
“An impression was being given that around 10000 students are participating in the event while as the Kennedy auditorium – where the event was being held – has a capacity of just 1500 people,” he said, adding that around 400-500 people participated in the event on the first day on Friday.
On Saturday morning when the varsity’s Cultural Education Centre cancelled the event citing “unavoidable circumstances”, the students camped outside the venue — Kennedy Hall — and forced the administration to revoke the cancellation notice.
“We held a meeting with the proctorial team demanding to allow the event which yielded the fruits,” Bukhari, also a member of organising team and a law student said.
The organisers of the festival — University Debating & Literary club (UDLC) — said that they received a notice from the varsity’s Cultural Education Centre on Saturday morning reading, “Due to unavoidable circumstances the events of 21 & 22 May 2022 of AMU Lit Fest, is hereby postponed till further order.”
The first day of the event, on Friday concluded successfully with speeches and panel discussion from guests. During the night, the university’s proctor without giving a reason asked the students to reschedule the event and on Saturday morning were served the notice.
Another student said that around 2 am today, the university administration removed the stalls and decoration from the auditorium.
“In the morning when we went to start the event, we found the auditorium locked,” he said.
He further said the administration officials verbally cited the law and order situation but “we had ensured a smooth event from our end”.
“Some guests were at airports waiting to board the flights while a few were waiting at the guest house. It was a very big moment for the university that Prof. Raghuram Rajan was going to speak. He is in Chicago and he has agreed to join us online,” he said.
Rajan is a former governor of Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
Journalist Aditya Menon who delivered a lecture on Friday at the festival called the cancellation “extremely disheartening” as he asked the students to know “why is it being postponed/cancelled?’
This is extremely disheartening. I had an excellent interaction with the students there yesterday. They have organized the festival with so much effort and trouble after a gap of two years. Why is it being postponed/cancelled? Surely they deserve to know the reason https://t.co/gAtBla2QqU
— Aditya Menon (@AdityaMenon22) May 21, 2022
Repeated attempts to reach out to AMU PRO Prof Shafey Kidwai for a comment failed.
On day one, Menon delivered the festival’s inaugural lecture on the current Indian political landscape. Dr Laurance Gautire, a French academic, spoke on the historical aspect of universities as spaces of dissent. There were also two discussion sessions of Urdu literature. The day ended with a musical performance that left the audience enthralled.
The festival was organised after a gap of two years due to Covid-19 pandemic. The last festival was held in 2019. The students spent three months preparing for the event. “Usually the administration would also contribute monetarily to make the festival happen but this time they said they do not have funds so it was being funded by students and alumni,” Bukhari said.
The organisers said while they were not given any reason behind the decision, they feel the administration is under pressure to cancel the festival.
The government does not want discussions and debates in the varsities, Bukhari said. “I think they did not want us to discuss issues and policies which are important. We had planned a session on minority rights. Obviously, the government must be unnerved about it,” he said. “The spaces for dissent are shrinking, it is painful.”
Students Islamic Organisation of India (SIO) president Mohammad Salman said that the AMU administration should have been proud of its Literary Festival and students, but instead of appreciating the creativity and dedicated efforts of student organizers of the literary festival, they are canceling the festival by force. “Very shameful behavior by the varsity administration,” SIO said.
AMU admin should be proud of its Literary Festival and students but instead of appreciating the creativity & dedicated efforts of student organisers of Literary fest, they are cancelling the festival by force.
Very Shameful behaviour by Admin… https://t.co/CxbC4hcqkH
— Mohammad Salman (@writesalman) May 22, 2022
Muhammad Raafi is a journalist based in New Delhi. He tweets at @MohammadRaafi