Four faculty members of the South Asian University in New Delhi have been suspended for “misconduct” and “inciting” a student’s protest against their colleagues and the administration.
Professors Snehashish Bhattacharya, Srinivas Burra, Irfanullah Farooqi and Ravi Kumar were suspended on June 16. They have been held guilty of inciting a month-long students’ protest in September after the monthly stipend of those pursuing masters degrees at the university was reduced from Rs 5,000 to Rs 3,000.
Even as the university rolled back the decision, the protests continued as the students demanded that the stipend be increased to Rs 7,000.
On October 13, the university administration called the Delhi Police to the campus to disperse the students who had gathered at the acting president’s office. A day later, 13 faculty members had objected to the move, saying this should have been avoided “given the international character of the university”.
On November 4, the university expelled five students, prompting an indefinite mass hunger strike by students. In a statement, 15 members of the faculty said that “arbitrary actions of the administration” have “sharply worsened the situation in the university”. One of the students, Ammar Ahmad, collapsed during the hunger strike on November 22 and later suffered a cardiac arrest.
The protest subsequently ended after vacations being announced in December, following which show cause notices were issued to the faculty members.
In a show cause notice dated December 30, the university asked if the faculty members were part of “Aijaz Ahmad Study Circle-A Marxist Study Circle Run by the Students of the South Asian University”.
On May 19, the university constituted a fact-finding committee to inquire into the involvement of faculty members in the protest.
The faculty members alleged that on May 19, the fact-finding committee asked them to answer between 132 to 246 questions in writing using pen and paper. The professors were asked to answer all the questions by the end of the day and while sitting in front of the fact-finding panel.
“This looks like a targeted action against four people in the university who were simply trying to tell the administration to resolve the issues amicably,” one of the suspended faculty members told The Indian Express.
Another faculty member told the newspaper that the university has not provided a valid reason for the action in the suspension letter.
“They have not told us what the misconduct is,” the faculty member said. “We are also surprised because 13 people wrote [to the administration] in October and 15 people wrote in November. Why are they picking only four people?”
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