Jadavpur University notes with deep concern and shock

Date: May 19, 2007


To
Dr. Manoj Soni
Vice-Chancellor
The Maharaja Siyajirao University of Baroda
Fatehgunj, Vadodara: 390002

Dear Sir:

I am directed to quote below a resolution adopted by the Executive Council
(highest decision making body of the University) at the 'Zero Hour' of
meeting held on May 16, 2007 for your kind information:

'This meeting of the Executive Council of Jadavpur University notes with
deep concern and shock the recent events at the M.S. University of Baroda
which included the arrest of a student without any FIR or warrant,
disruption of regular academic activities by police and hooligans, the
suspension of the Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts by the Vice-Chancellor.

This meeting strongly condemns the intrusion of intolerance in one of the
most important institutes of the teaching of the arts in India in the name
of protecting some misguided notion of tradition.

We record our support of the courageous stand of the Dean of the Faculty of
Fine Arts, Professor Shivaji Pannikar.

We condemn this and other similar events, which have tried to vitiate the
traditions of plurality, enquiry and experimentation on academic campuses in
India. We urge all academics, students, artists and intellectuals to take an
active role in ensuring that certain fundamentalist individuals and groups
do not succeed in their efforts to stifle values enshrined in democratic,
artistic, academic and constitutional systems.'

Yours faithfully,


(R Bandyopadhyay)