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IIMC professor resigns after getting transferred for supporting JNU, FTII students

According to Amit Sengupta, associate professor of English Journalism from IIMC, he was arbitrarily transferred to Dhenkanal as a punishment posting and alleged that it was a political decision by the Information and Broadcasting (I&B) ministry which led him to resign in protest.

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Professor Amit Sengupta as on his profile on his facebook page
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A professor from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) has resigned from his post after he was transferred to Odisha, allegedly for supporting the students of JNU, FTII and speaking up against the HCU over Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula’s suicide. 

According to Amit Sengupta, associate professor of English Journalism from IIMC, he was arbitrarily transferred to Dhenkanal as a punishment posting and alleged that it was a political decision by the Information and Broadcasting (I&B) ministry which led him to resign in protest.

Admitting this to be a punishment posting, I&B ministry sources accused him of inciting IIMC students, through social media, to initiate protests in the wake of a highly charged atmosphere in the country following widespread agitations to protest Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula’s suicide. 

“The decision to transfer him to Dhenkanal was a result of that,” a source said, adding that people were also needed in the Dhenkanal centre. An inquiry report on a recent alleged ‘çaste war’ at IIMC submitted to I&B ministry had also stated Sengupta’s role in inciting students. 

A Facebook post on January 19, this year, by Sengupta, stated, “Hello, IIMC students: protests all over by students. Why is IIMC silent? Put a poster at least, also, surely, the suicide note. I am ready to join you, i promise (sic).”
However, no show cause notice was issued to Sengupta in this regard. 

According to Sengupta, the transfer order dated was issued to me without discussing it with him or other faculty members. 

“This violates every principle of academic freedom and autonomy of IIMC. You have reduced IIMC into a hand-maiden of a vicious, undemocratic, and partisan regime,” Sengupta’s resignation letter stated.

Calling it a ‘clear case of victimization’, Sengupta stated, “I am also aware that I have been targeted because I supported the solidarity protest for Rohith Vemula in the campus, organized independently by students of IIMC in which other faculty members too participated.”

In his resignation letter, he also stated that he is proud to stand up for Vemula and will continue to do so in future. “This is my constitutional right. I think grave injustice has been done to him and the students of the Hyderabad Central University. I will always stand and fight for Dalit rights,” his letter stated.

Sengupta said he was also targeted because he supported the JNU and FTII students. “I think both the struggles are glorious and the country will enrich itself with the great leap of imagination and the brilliant content of the peaceful, democratic debate the students and faculty of these great institutions have generated,” the former JNUSU president wrote. 

Talking highly about JNU, Sengupta wrote, “It was an honour for me, as a former JNUSU president, to address the open air gathering of faculty and students of JNU, in which the finest of minds in India and abroad have participated,” adding that, the ministry, by targeting him, has also targeted the basic values of the country’s progressive Constitution. 

The letter stated that he had taught his students that they will never do journalism which professes xenophobia, casteism, sexism, racism, and communalism and that they should be objective and impartial. 

“That they should be objective and impartial. Also, that they should have open-ended, non-dogmatic and independent minds, and stand for truth and public interest, come what may. I presume I am paying a price for that,” he wrote in the letter. 

 

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