[Reader-list] Protest against Homophobia in AMU

[Shuddhabrata Sengupta]

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

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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