Nobel Laureate Writes to MS University

Earlier this year, Maharaja Sayajirao University, (MSU), Baroda in its official diary of the year 2017 credited sages for their contribution to science. They have credited sages for the discovery of rockets and aeroplanes. The June 2017 page says “Maharshi Bhardwaj discovered Rockets and Aeroplanes”. February page has Acharya Khanad credited for developing “Nuclear Technology”. Sushrut on the January page has been called the “father of Cosmetic Surgery”. Kapil Muni is called the “father of cosmology”. The list goes on for all the months of the year.

Nobel laureate Dr. Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, who received Nobel prise in 2009 for his contribution in Chemistry, is an alumnus of the university. He recently wrote to the university urging them to reprint the diary and planner. He said that it brings disrepute not only to the university but also to the country.

After the bizarre diary episode, the MSU on 8th March, cancelled a day long workshop entitled ‘Reading the Margins: Politics of Caste and Social Movements in India’. The workshop was to be held on 5th March. The workshop was organised by Institute of Policy Research and International Studies and Professor Ghanshyam Shah was to address the workshop. They claimed that the workshop had been cancelled because they are scared of facing backlash from “some people”. The Ramjas incidence has been used as precedence.

Education is getting distorted. The fear of right- wing group is being used as an excuse to cancel academic events. Clearly the tolerant objective university spaces are under attack across the country.