[Reader-list] FWD: MSU situation update

[sabitha t p]

21st September 2007

Dear Friends,
 I am attaching herewith a report prepared by my
colleagues on the current state of affairs in the
Faculty of Fine Arts, MSU Baroda. We are extremely
thankful to all who supported us in the past months,
and hope that the same will continue to remain. Please
feel free to forward the report to anyone you think
will be interested, and whom I have not been able
include.
Sincerely 
Shivaji. 

Current State of Affairs: Faculty of Fine Arts, MSU
Baroda 

·	On the 13th July Governor appointed a fact finding
committee to look into the events in the Faculty of
Fine Arts, MS University of Baroda, from 9th May  ’07,
with Convener Prof. Y.K. Alagh (Chairman, IRMA, Anand,
Gujarat), and members Dr. Sudarshan Iyengar (Vice
Chancellor, Gujarat Vidya Pith, Ahemedabad) and  Mr.
Haku Shah (Artist-Art Critic, Ahemedabad).    They met
a large number of staff and students of the Faculty of
Fine Arts, ACUA Members and others and have collected
all the necessary evidences and the report is awaited
anytime now. The MS University authorities remained
adamant, and do not consider Honorable Governor’s
Committee legitimate, and hence no depositions were
given. The committee was even denied a space or
assistance within the University campus!

·	At the moment no one has any clue as to what exactly
the Governor is going to do on the basis of the report
and how the University is going to resist or challenge
Governor’s decisions and what would be the
repercussions of these on the Faculty of Fine Arts.  

·	Respecting Governor’s Fact Finding Committee the
staff and students called off active agitation by mid
July ’07 and since then Faculty of Fine Arts was
limping back to unstable normalcy; it has declared
last year’s results, conducted entrance tests for BVA
and MVA and admitted students for the new academic
year of 2007-08. 

·	On the 27th July ’07 the MSU Syndicate resolved to
keep Prof. Shivaji K Panikkar under suspension
indefinitely till further orders. 

·	On the 24th Aug. ’07 MSU Syndicate decided to
terminate Prof. Shivaji K Panikkar from the job.
However the decision remained valid only for 4 hours.
The decision was based on University’s inquiry
committee report, which was submitted to the Syndicate
in the same meeting.  Predictably the report is full
of lies, infested with manipulated depositions,
evidences, malicious allegations and male-fide
intentions. The MS University had already filed a
caveat Gujarat University Tribunal, Ahemedabad, four
hours before the table-agenda of termination was
tabled in the Syndicate. After coming to know about
the content of Prof. Panikker’s petition which was to
be filed pleading for a stay order from the Tribunal
against termination and also due to the effective
intervention and dissent of Dr. I I Pandya, the sole
non-saffron member in the University Syndicate, the
same Syndicate reverted back to the earlier indefinite
suspension, while also deciding on a new plan of
instituting a departmental/disciplinary inquiry
against Prof. Panikkar. 

·	As per the Syndicate the decision on the 24th Aug.
’07 a disciplinary inquiry and charge sheet is also
due to 5 other colleagues of Prof. Panikkar  – Mr.
Jayaram Poduval, Mr. Santhosh.S., Ms Abha Sheth, Mr.
Jayakumar Reddy and Mr. Iftikhar  Ahmed. 

·	Moreover, the 24th Aug. ’07 Syndicate also decided
to constitute a committee to supervise the Faculty of
Fine Art’s functioning, especially all the
exhibitions. 

·	While challenging the suspension of Prof. Shivaji K
Panikkar is soon going to be filed in the court, the
hearing of the criminal case against Chandra Mohan’s
is still pending in the Baroda sessions court –the
charge sheet is still being awaited. His result is
withheld and remains deeply affected by the situation.


·	The sections of staff and students who had withdrawn
active agitation after Governor appointed his
committee, are now terribly frustrated.  With no
temporary lecturers appointed (three of the Art
History lecturers are not appointed, two of whom along
with one permanent staff member are awaiting charge
sheets for supporting the agitation). With Prof.
Shivaji K Panikkar also unable to teach only a very
few Art History classes are being conducted. A few
classes were being pushed down up on the students by
some ill equipped PhD students.  The students remain
terribly frustrated and have already resorted to
boycotting classes since over two weeks by now. 

·	Due to the illegal use of power, negligence of
responsibilities, manipulations and deliberate
harassments and victimization motivated by political
intentions by the MS University authorities supported
by the state government, the life and career of
several staff members particularly of Prof. Panikkar
and colleagues, and of the entire Faculty of Fine Arts
and of several student’s future are in great danger.  


·	The research work of Prof. Panikkar is suffering
gravely since his documents and research data is
locked-up in the Department of Art History and
Aesthetics, where he is denied entry since over the
last four months. The University authorities have lent
only deaf ears to his repeated requests and pleadings
to allow him to use the library, visual archive and
other documentary facilities. 

·	Possibly, all will agree that as the Head of the
Department, Prof. Panikkar was the leading spirit of
the Department in the past several years, and through
his and his colleague’s visionary initiatives several
new avenues and reputation of Art History as a
discipline with radical potential had opened up, all
of which remain   stranded and disbanded in the
current political scenario.  

·	Several research projects supported by UGC and other
funding agencies also remain stalled. One of such
ambitious projects initiated by Prof. Panikkar was of
digitizing the large collection of visual and other
data in the Regional Documentation Center, which
remains unfulfilled. 

·	A grant of over Rs.  84 lakh from Sir Ratan Tata
Trust for three years was granted to the Department of
Art History and Aesthetics in the month of April ’07
with Prof. Panikkar was named as the Coordinator, and
was to be implemented starting from the current
financial year. This too remains marooned.  

·	Major plans of publishing the last four year’s
national seminars are also facing set-back. The grant
received for a specialized quarterly critical art
history electronic journal for the coming three years
also remain as an unfulfilled dream today. Similarly,
due the illegal suspension of Prof. Panikkar library
grants worth Rs. 15 lakhs for the Faculty of Fine Arts
Library remain unusable. 

·	Sanctioned grants and plans for national and
international conferences which were scheduled in the
coming three years too remain threatened. 

·	Sanctioned grants and scheduled plans for Guest and
Visiting Faculty too remain cancelled. 

·	The above condition is a result of the University’s
apathy towards new and adventurous academic directions
and it also indicates the nature of University’s
reactionary politics, and the deliberate political
vengeance of the right wing of the MS University
authorities to the people thinking in revolutionary
and progressive directions in their respective
disciplines. The attitude and decisions of the
University authorities are major institutional losses
and deeply harm the Faculty of Fine Arts as a whole
and Art History Department in particular in their
democratic beliefs and right to protest and mark any
point of dissent. Personally the future of a number of
committed academician’s careers is in terrible
jeopardy. 

·	The above situation has also brought out a life
situation to all who are thinking in progressive
terms, the reality of fascist threats and physical
attacks; the lives     of those who protested the MSU
authorities are under surveillance. The students and
teachers who raised voice of dissent and disagreement
to the MSU authorities live in fear of them being
physically assaulted and attacked.  Several instances
of false police cases against innocent supporters of
the cause and on a day to day basis they all are being
subjected to mental torture and harassments. We live
with the fear of danger which hides in every nook and
corner of the city of Baroda and the state of Gujarat,
which do not even allow us to move freely in this
place.  







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