KASARGOD: The Central University of Kerala’s (CUK) decision to suspend associate professor Prasad Pannian from the office of the head of the Department of English and Comparative Literature for a Facebook post, is evoking widespread condemnation in social media.His timeline on Facebook is flooded with messages from students, teachers, writers and intellectuals expressing solidarity with him, and accusing the university of suppressing dissent. “What a shame,” wrote writer-critic Sunil P Elayidom on Facebook, reacting to the incident.
On Friday, Vice-Chancellor G Gopa Kumar removed Pannian as head of the department for a Facebook post condemning his (V-C’s) decision to press criminal charge against a research scholar who broke a pane of a fire extinguisher cabinet in the hostel. The student, Ganhoti Nagaraju, was arrested and had to spend five days in prison for the “misdemeanor”.
Gopa Kumar signed the suspension order on Friday, and pro-vice-chancellor K Jayaprasad circulated it on WhatsApp groups and to the media, without serving it to Pannian. He is yet to get the order.
“By targetting Pannian, the university is challenging the sense of justice and democratic tradition of Kerala society,” wrote Elayidom.
Josy Joseph, journalist and author wrote: “We’re indeed living in terrible times when democratic and academic values are pushed aside in favour of obedience and conformity. Left-leaning Purogamana Kala Sahitya Sangham (Progressive Arts & Literary Organisation) has also registered its protest against the suspension. Expressing solidarity with Pannian, left intellectual Anil Chelembra said, those who opposed the views of the ‘authorities’ were being branded as “enemies of the university”.
To be sure, Pannian on August 11 reacted to the arrest of the Dalit scholar on his Facebook by writing: “That an act of misdemeanor has been criminalised is deeply disturbing. As far as I understand, this is a minor offence that should have been settled on the campus itself. Mr Nagaraju lost his mother a few months ago and has been going through severe mental stress and agony... He has also not received his fellowship for quite some time. It is extremely saddening to know that our student is lying on the cold floor of the prison cell on charges of breaking a pane.
I strongly condemn this arrest and appeal to the authorities to immediately secure the release of our student”. The suspension of Pannian comes two days after the V-C expelled Akhil Thazhath, a second year post-graduate student of international relations and politics, for a Facebook post.Earlier, he had expelled another student of linguistics, Annapoorni Venkataraman, triggering massive student protest on the campus.
Students who led a relay hunger strike demanding proper food, water, and space in hostel, were not allegedly given admission this academic year. Reacting to the suspension of Pannian and expulsion of Thazhath, students called for an all-party meet on Sunday evening.
