Friday 18 May, 2007

Online Petition to the Governor of Gujrat

The petition is available at : http://www.petitiononline.com/MSUAUTO/


To
The Governor of Gujarat
Raj Bhavan, Sector-20,
Gandhinagar - 382020
Gujarat, India.

Sir,

We write to you in your capacity as the Visitor to the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. We strongly condemn the recent actions of the group of people with affiliations to Hindu supremacist groups, who barged into the Fine Arts campus of M.S. University, disrupted the examination and abused and threatened students and faculty members. Such attempts to stifle by force the rights to free speech and expression of individuals, and to impose on society in general the narrow perceptions of certain sections regarding what is permissible and what is not, constitute a serious threat to democratic institutions and practices.

The response of the University authorities to these events has, if anything, been even more disturbing than the actions of these self-appointed guardians of �morality�. Far from acting to protect the academic interests and the notions of autonomy and academic freedom which are so central to the very concept of a university, the University authorities have actually acted in concert with the hooligans who are threatening the functioning of the university. Where they should have initiated prompt legal action against the intruders and against the police who illegally entered the campus and arrested a student, and where they were duty-bound to make every effort to secure the immediate release of the student (who was released on bail after 5 days in custody), the University authorities chose to look the other way. Most shocking of all is the fact that the Vice-Chancellor subsequently advised the victims of the attack - students and faculty of the Fine Arts Faculty � to apologise for the events. Not content with this, the University administration further took the unprecedented step of suspending Dr. Shivaji Panikkar, the Dean of the Fine Arts Faculty, and barring his entry to the Fine Arts campus.

We wish to express our complete outrage at the actions of the Vice Chancellor and administration of the University. We would like to suggest that if the highest officials of the M.S. University administration are so out of sympathy with basic ideas, accepted the world over, of how a university should function, then they should relinquish any administrative functions in an academic institution.

As you are aware, the Fine Arts Faculty of M.S. University has enjoyed (and continues to enjoy) the reputation of being India�s leading Fine Arts school, which has had well-known artists on its faculty and has been the nucleus for a vibrant and internationally renowned artists' community. In order to remedy the situation and reassert the stature of the Fine Arts Faculty and the University as respectable centres of academic excellence that abide by generally accepted norms of functioning of a university, we demand that the following steps be urgently implemented:

1. Dismissal of the untenable and phony police case against the student, Mr. Chandra Mohan

2. Immediate revoking of the suspension order against Dr. Shivaji Panikkar, Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts

3. Initiation of legal action against the intruders on the University campus, including the police who improperly arrested Mr. Chandra Mohan in complete violation of D. K. Basu guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court of India

4. Apology by the Vice-Chancellor of M.S. University to the academic community of the University

We sincerely hope that even at this late stage you will take action to undo some of the damage that is being inflicted on a prestigious institution.

Sincerely,

Sincerely,

Undersigned

3 comments:

Unknown said...

BULL,.......................ALL NON GUJARATIS IN GUJARAT.........GETTING TOGATHER AND TRYING TO TEACH GUJARATIS HOW TO LOOK AT RELIGION.................GO HOME OR IF YOU WANT TO STAY........IN ROME DO AS THE ROMANS DO...NO ONE CALLED YOU HERE........LET GUJARAT BE PEACEFUL........AND LET US LIVE PLEASE STOP HARASSING US.....................................THE GOVERNOR IS ALSO OF THE GUJARATI PEOPLE AND NOT OF THE COUNTRY...............I AM SURE HE UNDERSTANDS WHAT PUBLIC SENTIMENTS ARE MORE THEN YOU............STOP WASTING YOUR TIME AND EVERYONES TIME...........MR.MODI IS THE BEST CHIEF MINISTER ANY STATE CAN DREAM OF..........ARE YOU PEOPLE JEALOUS........

Priyanka Shah said...

well i wish the gujarati's were educated enough to understand how they are destroying their state with movements like the VHP etc. Removing the outsiders from the fine arts faculty will only destroy what outsiders have built up. Maharaja Sayaji Rao Gaikwad was not a Gujarati and had a vision. Look at all the Universities in Gujarat - can any of them be called a university? becuase of the faculty of fine arts the University has a name and probably due to Prof. Chatto beyond that the departments have been brought to dust.

Neeraj Jain, Manoj Soni and Vanzara are sad reflections of our state. I wish we Gujarati's were more enlightened. I wonder what has gone worng.

Mohan Panikkar said...

Feel sorry for people like Ronak.

Have you heard the story of Koopa-Manduka - The Frog That Lived in a Well.

"Once upon a time, there lived a frog in a nice, deep well. It had lived there for a long time. It was born there and brought up there. This frog, every day fed on the worms and bacilli that lived in the water of the well, and became a fat frog with a lot of energy.

Well, one day another frog that lived in the sea came and fell into the well. Our well frog asked the sea frog, "Where are you from?"

"I am from the sea." Answered the sea frog

"The sea!" exclaimed the well frog, "How big is that? Is it as big as my well?", and he took a leap from one side of the well to the other.

"My friend", said the sea frog, "how do you compare the sea with your little well?"

Then the well frog took another leap and asked, "Is your sea so big?"

The shocked sea frog exclaimed "What nonsense you speak, to compare the sea with your well!"

"Well, Well," said the well frog, "nothing can be bigger than my well; there can be nothing bigger than this; He then shouted, "this fellow is a liar, turn him out."

Swami Vivekananda told this story to explain why it was that people in this world are unable to live at peace with one another. It is petty differences like these that we human beings are unable to resolve, which then causes hate and divisiveness."

Now dear Ronak, please don't aske me - who is this Vivekananda?

Where is his 'BHARATIYATA' OR 'INDIANNESS' of these people.

Is he aware of something called Indian Constitution. What about the Gujju brothers and sisters settled in other States and world over. Is he planning to force all of them to come back and settle in Gujarat and "let the remaining people of the world live" peacefully ever after.

I also wonder he and people like him knows anything about his own religion. How many religious texts have he read and understood?

The world has seen and experienced the peacefulnature of Guajarati’s not long time back.

God save the country ……………………… from the new age HITLERS