It is worthy to note that Jamia Millia Islamia was at the heart of the anti-CAA protests that turned violent in November with Islamists joining in and indulging in unbridled stone-pelting, arson and vandalism
New Delhi: The Law Faculty of Jamia Millia Islamia On April 24 announced that they would be organising an online lecture series where notable dignitaries from diversified fields will be taking online lectures.
The scheduled lectures started from April 25 and it was the turn of Supreme Court advocate J Sai Deepak on April 30 to speak on the issue of Minority Rights and the issue of reservation for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in Universities like Jamia Millia Islamia and the Aligarh Muslim University.
However, things changed on April 30 morning with the advocate receiving a mail stating his online lecture stands cancelled.
Well, we bring you what exactly happened between the invite for the lecture being extended to being cancelled.
What happened before the invite was extended?
A student body representative of Jamia Millia Islamia spoke to SC advocate J Sai Deepak and requested him to be a part of the lecture series. Initially, the student body representative wanted Sai Deepak to speak on the issue of ‘Mob Violence’.
This request was turned down by Deepak saying that he wanted the discussion to be academic instead of discussing issues that have political undertones. He said that while the discussion will be academic, any overlapping political issues can be discussed, however, he would want to stay clear of political undertones.
Later, Sai Deepak suggested that he would like to speak on Minority Rights and also touch upon the issue of reservation for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in Minority institutions like Jamia Millia Islamia and Aligarh Muslim University.
After speaking to the student council, the student coordinating with Sai Deepak confirmed via email that the event to J Sai Deepak that the lecture on the subject of minority rights and secularism as discussed previously has been scheduled.
However, things took a turn when few students at the university started protesting stating they won't allow a lecture by J Sai Deepak in Jamia Millia Islamia.
sir thank you for accepting the Jamia invite. My friends in the Committee did convince the University. Will they be able to convince the students, that remains to be seen.
— Sango (@sango_221)At this point, Sai Deepak reached out to the student council via email informing him of his continued availability for the lecture subject to the condition that none of the student organisers would be harmed, either physically or otherwise, as a consequence of the invitation. He emphasised that his priority was the safety of student organisers.
Despite the confirmation, on the 30th of April, the day the lecture was set to take place, the Law Faculty of Jamia Millia Islamia University cancelled the lecture by J Sai Deepak.
The event now stands cancelled. sir was invited for a session in Jamia's Faculty of Law and after few calls of boycott, the spineless administration is rattled. And the same lot lectures people on intolerance and Free Speech. pic.twitter.com/Vgz3YBRMBN
— Sango (@sango_221)While the notice by Jamia to its students did not provide any reason for the cancellation of the lecture, an email sent to Sai Deepak stated that his lecture was being cancelled because the wife of an employee of the Law Faculty of Jamia had passed away due to old age.
Branding it intolerance and the administration cowering to the demands of intolerant students, UpWord has decided to host the lecture by Advocate J Sai Deepak on its platform, which is set to be attended by the Jamia students who had signed up to attend the previous lecture.
However, from Minority Rights, the subject has now been changed to ‘Freedom of Expression’ (or the lack of it).
Cowering to intolerant forces, administration of Jamia Millia Islamia has canceled the lecture of J Sai Deepak scheduled today at 8:00 PM. will now interact with the students live on Upword at the same time. Join at https://t.co/lKp6fDjaNn at 8:00 PM. pic.twitter.com/8p9XrPLLmD
— Upword (@upword_)Read Exclusive COVID-19 Coronavirus News updates, at MyNation.