oppn parties One More Nail In The Coffin Of Academic Freedom

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One More Nail In The Coffin Of Academic Freedom

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2021-02-13 12:10:12

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator. Author of Cyber Scams in India, Digital Arrest, The Money Trap and The Human Hack

In a strange, disturbing, regressive and parochial circular, an undersecretary of the Union Ministry of Education has issued the "Revised Guidelines for holding online/virtual Conferences, Seminars, Training, etc." for universities, affiliated colleges and other educational institutions like IITs and IIMs. These guidelines put so many restrictions on holding international online interactions that they will soon become a thing of the past. Indian educational institutions will become closed units and it will be very difficult for them to share ideas with their peers worldwide.

The new guidelines provide that, all "central educational institutions, publicly-funded universities and organizations owned and controlled by the Government of India / State Government" will now have to get prior approval from the ministry of external affairs if they want to hold online international conferences or seminars on subjects related to "security of State, Border, Northeast states, UT of J&K, Ladakh or any other issues which are clearly/purely related to India's internal matter/s".

In addition to the above, an approval will be required from the appropriate "administrative secretary for the event as well as for the list of participants". Prior permission will also have to be obtained from the MEA for "events involving sensitive subjects (political, scientific, technical, commercial, personal) with provisions for sharing of data in any form". Once the event is held and done with, the organizers will have to share the link with the MEA. 

Why such restrictions? After all, those in universities or other centres of educational excellence do not possess classified data of national importance. Neither do they discuss state secrets in such online seminars or conferences. Knowledge expands by sharing and these educational institutions just hold academic discussions across various fields with data which is already in public domain and research papers that are also circulated in respected academic journals world-wide. But now the babus in the Ministries of Education and External Affairs will decide how these online seminars can be held and what can be discussed in them. It will become a tool in their hands to harass academicians. 

The circular, if enforced, will effectively kill most world-wide knowledge sharing initiative which Indian educational institutions take from time to time to update themselves with the latest trends in their field. They will lose the opportunity of hearing from the best minds in their field and also to make the world aware of what is happening in that particular field in India. For, which vice-chancellor of any university or administrative head of any educational institution will put his or her head on the block in such a restrictive regulatory setup? One small slip and the respected academician might be "called out" for being an "anti-national" and sent to jail. 

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