On November 10, Gurugram University banned a program on the humanitarian crisis of Palestine which was organised by its political science and public policy department. The talk show on the Palestinian struggle for equal rights was set to be addressed by JNU professor Zoya Hasan on November 12 to invoke awareness about sensible perspectives and different responses to the ongoing genocide.
Just 2 days before the program, organizers reached Zoya Hasan and informed her about the swift cancellation without any appropriate reasons. Advocating the sudden decision Professor Annapurna Sharma insulted the Palestinian freedom endeavours as “a topic of controversial nature” while the Vice Chancellor managed to state that the decision was not made with any “ill intent”.
Talking to the Times of India, the VC said that the university is also planning a youth festival and a conference, and they can’t focus on a particular event as such cancellations are considered usual by internal management.
An Unfortunate Censorship
On the other hand, Zoya Hasan said that the university approached after tracing her opinion article on the carnage to discuss the “extremely important” issue but later they cancelled the pre-arranged program that was all-prepared for kick-off. The professor argued against the “administrative excuses” while identifying gruesome fascist reasons and hypocritical forces behind the decision.
“Palestine is an important issue of our time, and it is a question of justice and rights that are being denied,” she said, voicing extreme distress.
She expressed deep disappointment at the abrupt cancellation, citing the mishap as an “unfortunate” incident and an imposed “censorship” which would restrict independent expressions.
Different Institutions, Same Dictatorship
The bans on demonstrations around Palestinian solidarity are being normalized in educational institutions due to pressure from the government. Whenever resilient students raise their voices to stand by human rights, they are restricted and stigmatized.
Recently, the Centre For West Asian Studies at JNU also annulled three seminars on the violence in West Asian countries. This program was set to be addressed by Iranian, Palestinian and Lebanese ambassadors. While cancelling these shows the college administration did not provide any clarification, however, the students marked out that it was an outcome of right-wing pressures inside the campus that aimed to stop the event from being held.
By the same token, several student protestors in Bengaluru faced extreme criticism for slamming the Israel-India business meeting in October.
Similarly, in 2023, IIT Bombay cancelled a lecture on the historical context of the Israel-Palestine matter due to its “pro-Palestinian and pro-Hamas orientations”, while around 4 AMU students were booked for voicing their solidarity with brave slogans and placards to back Palestine. Explaining the reasons AMU proctor said that they can’t allow any indiscipline on sensitive issues and the management stands by the governmental (pro-Israeli) treatment of the matter.
