JNU Teachers' Association Condemns Right-Wing Disruption of Nivedita Menon Talk in Odisha
19 March 2024 | The Wire
New Delhi: The Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers’ Association (JNUTA) has issued a statement in support of varsity professor Nivedita Menon, who was recently forced to leave the podium during a talk at the Gangadhar Meher University in Odisha’s Sambalpur due to disruptions by a right-wing Hindu group. “While her talk at GMU titled ‘Feminisms for the 21st century’ was disrupted after she had spoken for about 15 minutes of her inaugural talk by a handful of people—mostly outsiders to GMU—who shouted slogans to intimidate Menon and prevented her from speaking, her online talk at Sambalpur University was not allowed to be streamed,” JNUTA said.
“The disruption and intimidation of Menon by anti-academic elements is a grave assault on academic freedom,” the statement continued, adding, “it is extremely worrying that attendees were forced to leave, depriving them of the opportunity for dialogue and exchange of ideas…”