'Sorry state of academic freedom': DU professor denied leave to speak at US institute, alleges censorship

NEW DELHI: DU professor Apoorvanand Jha was denied leave by Delhi University after he refused to submit the text of his proposed talk at an academic event in New York, America. The university said that it needed to seek advice and clearance from the ministry of education before granting permission for leave.

Apoorvanand was invited to talk at the 20th anniversary celebrations of the India China Institute at The New School in New York scheduled from April 23 to May 1. He had applied for leave a month before, through Delhi University’s online portal. A month later, he was informed that the matter had been referred to the Union ministry of education, the Indian Express reported.

Following this, Apoorvanand Jha wrote to the DU vice-chancellor Yogesh Singh stating that there is no rule that requires government permission for a faculty member to take leave. He said that the act of demanding the text of his proposed talk is censorship.

Later, he received a couple of letters - dated April 2 and April 4 - from the assistant registrar asking him to share the text of his talk as a condition to consider his travel clearance.

“The whole episode has anguished me as I felt that decades of teaching and writing of a faculty member are of no value in the eyes of the administration as it does not even think it necessary to acknowledge letters and mails from them,” Jha said in his email to DU VC. “You would agree that it is humiliating for a teacher,” the Scroll reported.

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'Sorry state of academic freedom'

Apoorvanand recently attended a podcast, hosted by Indian comedian and satirist Kunal Kamra, titled “State of Academic Freedom in Indian Universities”. They discussed government interventions in academic freedom, censorship, declining freedom of thought and expression, and discouraging student politics, and suppression of academic voices. Notably, he was going to speak on "The university under a global authoritarian turn" at US institute.

In the talk show, he compared Delhi University and Ashoka University in terms of freedom to design its own courses, syllabus, and teaching method. Now, the University Grants Commission (UGC) provides centralised guidelines for developing curriculum, he said.

After the university refused to grant him leave, Kamra wrote on X: "2 days ago I release 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 about."

"This is not the first time", Apoorvanand said he was invited by a Delhi University college to speak at a seminar scheduled for April 8–9. The seminar convener had in-depth discussions with him about the format and other participants. However, just two days before the event, he received an email saying that the seminar has been postponed.

Highlighting censorship, he said, "I can name many of my colleagues who are no longer invited to speak at India’s public universities. And even if they are invited, their invitation is later canceled."

Later, he learnt that the college principal objected to his participation. “DU faculty members and invited speakers are disinvited or silenced,” he added in the podcast.