Now, even academic discourse is under threat from the powers that be in Delhi. Historian and culture activist Dr Sumail Singh Sidhu was to present his ideas and thoughts on “Baba Farid to Singhu Border – The Making of Punjabi Radical Tradition” which was to be streamed live on social media platform YouTube last evening, but at the nth hour, it was called off as the Principal of Ramanujan College of Delhi University, apparently under pressure chickened out saying, the topic was “objectionable.” WSN Delhi Desk reports.

Moments before the news cycle about the Modi government tightening the screws on the social media exploded on TV channels Thursday evening, a principal of a Delhi University College got hyperactive and ordered immediate scrapping of an online talk organized by the college’s own History Society, claiming the title of the talk was “objectionable”.

The students and faculty of the History Department of the Ramanujan College of the Delhi University, keen to learn about the linkage between the fearlessness of Baba Farid and the ongoing protest at the Singhu Border, were taken by surprise at the intervention of Principal S P Aggarwal in the sudden cancellation of the event. In the atmosphere of intimation that prevails even in the most prestigious institutions of the country, it would be naive to expect the faculty or the students to speak out against such attempts to stop discourse on key issues.

The World Sikh News has learnt that Dr Sumail Singh Sidhu is perplexed at the strange ways of the college management in cancelling the scheduled and well-advertised talk show.

When contacted by The World Sikh News, Dr Sumail Singh Sidhu said, “One can understand as to what powers could be behind this peculiarly rushed decision to cancel an academic exchange to discuss historical memory and social processes underlying an ongoing public action. In any throbbing democracy of 140 crore people, one would expect a thousand such talks happening every day, but clearly, hyperactive obsequiousness and kowtowing to the ruling ideology seems to be the order of the day.”

“The ‘technical difficulties’ official reason for withholding the online talk is at variance with the sad course of events.

“With the Centre targeting everyone, including the top management of Twitter – there is a chilling effect across academia. “Such embarrassing cancellation is clearly an outcome of self-throttling policies being implemented by many higher education institutions’ administrations,” said a senior faculty member at the Ramanujan College.

“In any throbbing democracy of 140 crore people, one would expect a thousand such talks happening every day, but clearly, hyperactive obsequiousness and kowtowing to the ruling ideology seems to be the order of the day.”

Historian and Culture activist Dr Sumail Singh Sidhu

Dr Sidhu, known for his oratorical skills and artful articulation of a refreshingly innovative way to approach Punjab’s intellectual tradition, said many of his pals and even audiences unacquainted with him previously have reached out to ask what went wrong. Many participants had taken leave to join the lecture, others had rescheduled their engagements and it had taken me days to prepare for the academic event.

Such callous, authoritarian and fundamentally unjust crackdown on academic freedom is going on for a long time and it is our academic duty to resist. Struggle for sane spaces of dialogue is an essential aspect of academic practice which is a foundational aspect of Punjabi radical tradition’, he added.

Ironically, Principal Aggarwal’s message on the website of the college, claims that the “students’ interest in extracurricular activities (including) debating… are taken care (sic) by the many societies and cells of the college.”

Yearning for the democratisation of Indian society and the Indian polity, academics do not see the lack of the same within academic circles. Students are trained to be zombies and not inquisitive individuals challenging status quo and inbred thought patterns and stereotypes.

“We actively encourage students and teachers to initiate programmes and events that help them to realise their creative longings and inner calling. An efficient administrative staff supports all endeavours in the college,” proclaims Aggarwal on the website even as the Sanskriti Society of his college was forced to scrap the debate about farmers’ agitation.