'Attack on free expression': ABVP 'insults' Udaipur professor for FB post
P.U.C.L | 11 June 2024 | Counterview
People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), Rajasthan, condemning what it called "insult of Professor Himanshu Pandya" by students affiliated with with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarti Parishad (ABVP) in Udaipur, has said he was evicted from the class where he was teaching after raising "ugly slogans", forcing him to "leave the university".
Stating the reason for the attack of Prof Pandya was a Facebook post six months ago, where he had "expressed pain over the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya in 1992", PUCL insisted, it is "attack on the freedom of expression and curtailment of academic freedom", and if left unpunished, "it could derail democracy."
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PUCL condemns the insulting treatment of Prof Himanshu Pandya at Mohanlal Sukhadia University, Udaipur, by student activists of the ABVP. This represents not just an attack on one person, but an attempt to stifle academic freedom and curtail free speech, vital to the health of any democracy. PUCL demands that the state government take cognizance of the offence without delay, and bring the perpetrators to justice.
Prof Himanshu Pandya had been specially invited to the university to teach a course in research methods. The ABVP members reached his class without any warning. They abused the professor and evicted him from the class, raised ugly slogans and forced him to leave the university, pursuing him with slogans even outside the campus. After Prof Pandya left, the foul-mouthed group protested against course coordinator Prof Sudha Choudhury and department head Hemant Dwivedi….