[Reader-list] Protest against Homophobia in AMU
Tara Prakash
taraprakash at gmail.com
Mon Feb 22 22:49:20 IST 2010
Thank you Gautam for the clarification. If possible have the pettition placed online for others to sign. Every Indian has a say in this affair. What the university administration did was illegal. It's them not prof. Sirisa, that should be sacked.
----- Original Message -----
From: Gautam Bhan
To: Tara Prakash
Cc: reader-list list ; Shuddhabrata Sengupta
Sent: Monday, February 22, 2010 11:42 AM
Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Protest against Homophobia in AMU
Just to clarify, Shuddha posted the letter as was carried in the HT last week. That letter
was made in about three hours to meet the press deadline and have an immediate response,
and in that time, we had five plus thirteen signatures that went to press. Since then, in the past few days,
the number of signatures has increased to over 80 and its rising. There is a lot of support.
The updated letter with the new signatures will be put online soon.
best,
Gautam
On Mon, Feb 22, 2010 at 9:53 PM, Tara Prakash <taraprakash at gmail.com> wrote:
By indicating that there are only 5 plus 13 other teachers to sign this
pettition, aren't the sponsors of this pettition suggesting that there is
not much support for Prof. Siras? Won't it be more effective to leave out
the "13 other" part?
----- Original Message -----
From: "Shuddhabrata Sengupta" <shuddha at sarai.net>
To: "reader-list list" <reader-list at sarai.net>
Sent: Monday, February 22, 2010 6:12 AM
Subject: [Reader-list] Protest against Homophobia in AMU
> Dear All,
>
> You may have heard or read about the recent incident where Dr.
> Shrinivias Ramchandra Siras, a member of the faculty of Modern Indian
> Languages at the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) was suspended by the
> AMU on the grounds of his homosexuality. Those who are unaware of
> this development, please see
>
> http://ibnlive.in.com/news/amu-faces-flak-for-suspending-gay-
> professor/110423-3.html
>
> http://www.hindustantimes.com/uttarpradesh/Support-for-AMU-teacher-
> Gay-body-to-fight-his-case/511039/H1-Article1-510375.aspx
>
> By taking this retrograde and totally illegal step, the AMU
> authorities, who preside over one of the most prestigious
> universities in India, have brought shame on themselves and their
> university. Homosexuality is not an offence, and what happens,
> consensually, in the privacy of a person's home is not something that
> any university authorities have any right to act on. By taking this
> action, the AMU authorities have displayed how little regard they
> have for the privacy and dignity of their faculty. The vice
> chancellor of the AMU should in fact be taken to task for acting
> totally outside his brief by defending Prof. Siras' suspension.
>
> Unfortunately, it is not only the AMU authorities that are culpable
> for the indignity that Prof. Siras (and his companion that day) have
> had to suffer. a local TV channel's 'scoop' which precipitated the
> whole episode and The Times of India's Manjari Mishra's initial
> reporting of the incident, was deeply homophobic, and disrespectful.
>
> Manjari Mishra's report has the following completely egregious and
> offensive sentence - "Amid swirling tales of his ``sordid'' sexual
> preferences, Siras was quietly packing his bags." On what grounds
> does the reporter consider Prof. Siras' sexual preferences to be
> 'sordid' and on what grounds does her newspaper actually print this?
> If there is anything sordid about the episode it is the matter in
> which it has been reported and represented on the pages of the TOI.
> The newspaper (whose 'Aman ki Asha' initiative I have found
> commendable) needs to introspect as to how it let yellow journalism
> of the worst kind stain its pages.
>
> To read Manjari Mishra's report see -
>
> http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Aligarh-Muslim-University-
> professor-suspended-for-being-gay/articleshow/5585787.cms
>
> I am attaching below a letter signed by several eminent academics
> from several Indian universities condemning the action. (Apologies
> for cross posting from Kafila.org)
>
> best,
>
> Shuddha
>
> -----------
>
> STATEMENT BY TEACHERS AND ACADEMICS CONDEMNING THE AMU's STANCE
>
> We, as teachers and academics from universities across India, read
> with outrage and dismay that Dr Shrinivas Ramchandra Siras, reader
> and chairman of Modern Indian Languages at the Aligarh Muslim
> University (AMU) was suspended for having consensual sex with someone
> of the same sex within the privacy of his home.
>
> What made the press report that came out on Thursday in certain
> sections of the media particularly shocking was that there were
> either cameras placed by students within Dr Siras’ house or
> television reporters got into the house and made a video film of the
> alleged incident that was then passed on to the university
> authorities. The university authorities instead of going by the
> constitutionally recognised right to privacy within the four corners
> of one’s house have instead chosen to act against Dr Siras.
>
> The outrage of the university authorities is deeply misdirected.
> Instead of suspending Dr Siras, they should have taken stern and
> serious action against those who so blatantly took on the role of
> playing moral police with no regard whatsoever for Dr Siras’
> constitutionally recognised right to privacy and dignity within his
> home and the university.
>
> What is the ‘gross misconduct’ for which Dr Siras has been suspended?
> It is not a crime for an adult to have consenting intimate sexual
> relations with another adult. It is not an offence for an adult to
> have consensual sex with another adult in the privacy of his home. Dr
> Siras, in line with the judgement of the Delhi High Court in Naz
> Foundation, has also committed no legal offence. On the other hand,
> he is the victim of multiple offences — his house has been entered
> into without his consent and his intimate life has been filmed
> without his consent.
>
> The press reports repeatedly allege that Dr Siras was having
> consensual sex with a “rickshaw puller”. Is the occupation or implied
> class status of the individual involved the reason behind the
> accusation of ‘scandal’ and ‘outrageous’ behaviour? If so, then the
> AMU administration is violating the tenets both of India’s
> Constitution and of the ethics and values of an institution of higher
> learning with a history as long and distinguished as AMU which was
> built precisely to end discrimination on religion, caste or class.
>
> One has to remember that it was only last year that Chief Justice
> Shah and Justice Muralidhar, in holding Section 377 inapplicable to
> consenting sex between adults in private, came up with the important
> distinction between public morality and constitutional morality. As
> they noted, “Moral indignation, howsoever strong, is not a valid
> basis for overriding individual’s fundamental rights of dignity and
> privacy. In our scheme of things, constitutional morality must
> outweigh the argument of public morality, even if it be the
> majoritarian view.”
>
> If the Naz judgement with its stress on constitutional morality is
> taken seriously, the immoral actions will be not be Dr Siras’ conduct
> but rather the actions of the university authorities in suspending
> him for the expression of his constitutional right, the actions of
> the media to blatantly invade his life as well as the possible
> involvement of students of the university.
>
> This incident follows a series of events that mark the shrinking of
> spaces of freedom and dignity within India’s institutions of higher
> learning. It is imperative that we protect institutions that should
> be bastions of building inclusive and democratic cultures for
> generations to come from narrow-minded moral policing of this kind.
>
> Saleem Kidwai, Nivedita Menon, Mary John, V. Geetha, Shilpa Phadke
> and 13 other teachers and academics from universities across India.
>
>
> Shuddhabrata Sengupta
> The Sarai Programme at CSDS
> Raqs Media Collective
> shuddha at sarai.net
> www.sarai.net
> www.raqsmediacollective.net
>
>
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