A PhD scholar was forced to tender an apology while his supervisor had to resign after a doctoral research proposal on Kashmir’s ethnography and politics ended in the South Asian University (SAU) in New Delhi issuing a show-cause notice to the scholar and launching a disciplinary inquiry against the supervisor.
According to The Indian Express, Sasanka Perera, the supervisor, who teaches sociology and is a founding member of the Sociology department at SAU, resigned from the university.
The PhD scholar tendered an apology to the university administration for "hurting sentiments."
The doctoral research proposal reportedly cites American linguist Noam Chomsky’s criticism of the NDA government, The Indian Express added.
The show-cause notice flagged a private YouTube video of an interview with Chomsky, which the scholar recorded in 2021 and uploaded in 2022. In this video, Chomsky is heard saying that Prime Minister Narendra Modi comes from a “radical Hindutva tradition” and is attempting to “dismantle Indian secular democracy” and “impose Hindu technocracy.”