Students being roughed up by BJP activists
at MS Univessity, Baroda on May 11, 2007
Making Fundamentalists out of Moles
In an open letter Prof. Shivji Panikkar, who was suspended from service for defending students in Baroda, reacts to the letter by Delhi based activist Rashneek Kher, which was published in artconcerns.com August 2007 issue.
Dear Friends,
Shivji Panicker |
This is a much delayed response to the note written by Rashneek Kher as a response to Parvez Kabir’s essay in Artconcerns.com, July, 2007.
My purpose of responding to the above is only to clear my position regarding the allegations raised against me by the above author.
Things become ridiculous if one chooses to relate the plight of Kashmiri Pundits and the lack of media support for them, and the way religious fundamentalisms elsewhere operates, and then on to Baroda; as it surfaced in the “ugly ways” that Niraj Jain chose to do!!! 9th May ’07 was a black day for Faculty of Fine Arts (Baroda). Whatever must have been the intentions or purpose of holding any shows by NDTV or any other channels, it is absolutely necessary to be kept in mind that Jain’s attack was on the autonomy of academic space and the attack on Chandra Mohan was an assault on the examination-evaluation process. It is also absolutely necessary to bear in mind that he was only an art student and not an artist as yet. As a student, mistakes even if present are to be evaluated and rectified by the experts in the field, and not in anyway by a political goon like Jain.
There are inherent inadequacies and dangers in lending a maulavi status to Jain. The logic of such equations itself is wrong. It constantly tends to polarize the world into any two opposing categories, and speak for one while condemning the other. What we have to possibly understand is that all institutionalized religions have things good and bad in them - no religious system can be thus perfect. Another danger that Kher makes with regard to Parvez is in going by the person’s name while presuming his religio-political identity. A person with Hindu or Muslim name should not be cornered or accused for all the ills in a religious system that the identity of his/her name may be pointing to.
For me too, the present Dean of Faculty of Fine Arts (MSU, Baroda), Prof. Deepak Kannal, is undoubtedly a scholar, respected teacher and he had been my colleague for over two decades. Like Rashneek Kher, I too earnestly wish he was present when the unfortunate incident happened. As Kher claims, it is possible that Prof. Kannal would have handled the situation like a “balanced educationist who has the best interest of the students at heart.” However Kher accuses me that “…he could not handle the situation and actually played it up for reasons best known to him.” Elsewhere in the response Kher goes on to say that I allowed the whole thing come to a stage where I could draw “personal mileage” for myself and “forces beyond”. Further, Kher says that I lack wisdom, which Prof. Kannal has. Well said, and thanks.
If I have wisdom or not, factually I think no one will disagree that what happened in the FFA on the 9th May ’07 was unprecedented - never has it happened once before as far as the FFA’s history goes. What would anyone with integrity and commitment to the institution have done? The evaluation process was on in the campus, without even informing any responsible authorities, including me about his grievances Mr. Niraj Jain along with media and police stormed in, police took away a student without informing authorities, Jain and associates go around the campus 6 long hours abusing, threatening students and staff demanding the vandalization of the art works by students. Police stood mute witness to all these. Despite repeated phone calls from me to the University authorities, no support was provided to FFA. With lots of negotiation between me and police authorities, I somehow managed to save the works of art from Jain and his associates and got them sealed in a room within Faculty premise.
The University authorities did not protect FFA even in the subsequent days too, instead they asked for an apology for ‘hurting public sentiments’. The entire FFA staff and students strongly resented the idea. Jain had violated the autonomy and sanctity of the academic space and the examination/evaluation process, and the staff and students unanimously wanted an FIR to be filed against Jain and legal help to be provided to the student Chandra Mohan. It is unfortunate to say that the University authorities neither protected FFA nor its students; rather shockingly they blatantly tried to protect the intruders.
At this point rather than submitting an apology, I offered my resignation as an administrator, but the entire staff of FFA rejected my proposal because we all at FFA were holding together for our legitimate rights. Students wanted to protest the University’s apathy, and on the 11th May they were putting together an exhibition of the reproductions of the artworks of the Past Ages as a mark of democratic protest as well as an attempt to reach out to the public through media on the issue of nudity and religion. It was a completely academic protest initiated by the students and was on the process of display and meanwhile the University ordered its closedown. I only expressed my inability to execute the orders, and shortly I was suspended.
Throughout the above events, the collusion between the right wing politics and the University authorities became obvious.
In the above situation what else could one have done??? Resist? Or, compromise with the rightwing, apologize, and get on with the terrorist act and allow it to happen again??? Tell me Rashneek Kher what would have Prof. Kannal done in such a situation? Apologize/compromise to the rightwing and get back to normalcy? As a colleague who has known him, I cannot believe that Prof. Kannal could have simply compromised, and ignored the violation of the basic rights of an institution and its members. Anyone with integrity and commitment would have done exactly what I did. If media brought it out to the world it was only doing its rightful democratic role in the society.
I stand by what I did, and I am proud, despite the fact that thereafter I am a looser in all fronts. Tell me Kher, what is the “personal mileage” that I am getting? My work is suffering, my students are loosing their precious time to learn, my junior colleagues are rejected reappointment, many are waiting for charge sheet to be issued by the University, the whole Department is loosing out on various developmental projects, our lives too are under severe threats and many more dangers impending on the Faculty as a whole… how can anyone perceive this as gaining a personal mileage?
Come to think of it: The University is not even considering condemning the May 9th incidents at FFA, and on what moral grounds can they demand my apologies?
As to the accusation by Kher that “Panikkar is known to have played politics of minortyism while in the HOD’s chair”, my gut level instinct is to retort back with a ‘why not’? But, the question that I would like to address is; can anyone keep away the personal intellectual trajectory and quests that one had been engaged-in, while one functions as any authority in any institution? My answer is in negative, and can activities such as the UGC National seminar (Feb. ’07) Cultural Practice and Discourses of the ‘Minor’ in the Department be reduced to playing politics of “mynortyism”? As an educationist I believe in engaging with issues and questions that the ‘conventional’ mainstream hesitates or ignores to look into. The HOD’s chair I believe is the right place to work from in enabling all to see the minor underbellies of culture - well, there are differences and we can go ahead only if we respect the ‘other-s’ and their life struggles and realities.
While you may circulate this widely, I thank all for taking out your valuable time to go through this, please do not hesitate to argue or ask for further clarifications. I promise that I shall respond personally to each of the responses I receive.
Sincerely
Shivaji K Panikkar (shivji.panikkar@gmail.com) |
