In yet another act of censorship by the Union government, Delhi University professor and columnist Apoorvanand was denied leave to attend an India-China talk in New York later this month, after he refused to submit his speech text to the authorities.
Speaking to Maktoob, Apoorvanand said that he had sought leave to participate in the 20th anniversary celebrations of the India China Institute at The New School in New York from April 23 to May 1.
He was slated to speak on the topic “The university under a global authoritarian turn” during the visit.
He said that not only was he not given leave, his application was sent to the university for approval, and he was also asked to email his speech text to the authorities.
“The university authorities told me that my leave application was sent to the ministry. And then they asked me to submit the text of my talk for approval. Now, both these things are unprecedented. And there is no precedent. Never before has anyone been asked to submit the text of his or her talk,” he said.
The professor emphasised that never in the history of DU’s academia has someone been asked to submit the text for their talk before.
Apoorvanand said that he wrote back to the authorities refusing to comply with the undemocratic demand.
“I wrote to the ministry telling them I will not be doing so, because it would be compromising my own academic integrity and the spirit of academic freedom,” he said.
In a letter to Delhi University Vice-Chancellor Yogesh Singh, Apoorvanand said he told the registrar that, to the best of his knowledge, there was no rule that required government permission for a faculty member to be granted leave.
“He [the registrar] agreed that he himself was not aware of any such rule,” the professor told Maktoob. “Then I asked him if there was any precedent that could justify this move by the university to send my leave application to the ministry for advice or clearance. He admitted that during his tenure this was the first such case.”
Apoorvanand said that he has travelled abroad for talks and seminars before, but this is the first time something like this has happened to him—or to anyone, for that matter.
“The registrar himself agreed that this was going to be the first such case in his tenure, which meant that there was not even a precedent. So, both these things were unacceptable to me,” the professor added.
Meanwhile, social media has started buzzing with the report, with comedian Kunal Kamra taking to X and saying that the professor was probably targeted for speaking out on the condition and censorship that universities are currently facing under the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) regime.
“Two days ago I released a podcast with Prof. Apoorvanand about the sorry state of academic freedom in Indian universities…
I wake up this morning and hear that he has been denied leave to go speak at an academic event in America, which is the exact censorship we discussed,” he said.
Meanwhile, Apoorvanand told Maktoob that a couple of hours later on Thursday, he received another email from the university, “asking me again to submit the text of my talk.”
“Again, I responded that I won’t be able to do that. Because there was no precedent. And it is against the spirit of academic freedom. It is like censoring,” he added.
