Four South Asian University faculty members, including Professors Srinivas Burra, Irfanullah Farooqi, Snehashish Bhattacharya, and Ravi Kumar were suspended for supposedly getting students to protest, not appropriately discharging their “duties”, and for supposed ties to communists. The Committee of Concerned Scientists is concerned that these suspensions are an attempt to silence dissent on campus.
July 10, 2023
Ranjan Kumar Mohanty
Professor & Acting President
South Asian University,
Rajpur Road, Maidan Garhi,
New Delhi, Delhi 110068
Republic of India
Phone: 91 11 20863540
E-mail: rmohanty@sau.ac.in
Dear President Mohany:
The Committee of Concerned Scientists is an independent organization of scientists, physicians, engineers, and scholars devoted to the protection and advancement of human rights and scientific freedom for colleagues all over the world.
We are writing in regard to the four recently suspended South Asian University faculty members: Professors Srinivas Burra, Irfanullah Farooqi, Snehashish Bhattacharya, and Ravi Kumar. On June 16th, the university suspended them over accusations of encouraging students to protest, not appropriately discharging their “duties”, and for supposed ties to communists. These accusations appear related to the 2022 student protests at the university over decreasing stipends for postgraduate students at the university and the subsequent police actions and expulsion or suspension of numerous students.
The Committee is concerned that these faculty members were arbitrarily targeted for criticizing the university’s response to the protests, especially the use of police force and arbitrary suspension of students without due process, against the standards of the university. The Committee of Concerned Scientists is especially concerned that these suspensions are an attempt to silence dissent and academic freedom on campus.
We write to urge your administration to investigate this matter and to ask that you reinstate the faculty members.
Thank you for your attention to this serious matter. We will be closely following developments in this case.
Sincerely,
Joel L. Lebowitz, Paul H. Plotz, Walter Reich, Eugene M. Chudnovsky, Alexander Greer
Co-Chairs, Committee of Concerned Scientists
CC:
Dharmendra Pradhan
Minister of Education and Minister of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship
Ministry of Education, Government of India
302-C, Shastri Bhawan,
Doctor Rajendra Prasad Road, Rajpath Area, Central Secretariat,
New Delhi New Delhi, Delhi, India 110001
Phone: 91 11 23782698
Email: minister.sm@gov.in
H.E. Taranjit Singh Sandhu
Ambassador
Embassy of the Republic of India
2107 Massachusetts Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20008
Phone: 1 202 939 7000
Fax: 1 202 265 4351
Email: psamb.washington@mea.gov.in
Twitter: @IndianEmbassyUS