An official of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay disclosed on Friday, November 10 that students of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay have filed a police complaint against a professor of the institution and a guest speaker for allegedly speaking in support of Palestinian resistance fighters during a virtual lecture.
In a complaint lodged on Wednesday, November 8, the students demanded action against Professor Sharmistha Saha of the Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) department and theatre director and actor Sudhanva Deshpande, the guest speaker, for the talk held on November 6.
“We denounce the blatant attempt by Professor Sharmistha Saha, under the pretext of academic course 'HS 835 Performance Theory & Praxis' to host such hateful speakers to indoctrinate students with biased and factually false stories,” a student told PTI.
Students claimed that Saha had, "inappropriately used her position to invite Deshpande, a radical Leftist as part of her course work HS 835" in their complaint letter to the police
They alleged that Deshpande had “glorified” former Palestinian resistance fighter Zakaria Zubeidi. This, they say, has “troubling consequences for the academic integrity and safety of IIT Bombay.”
"During the event, Deshpande made a statement that has raised significant concern. He not only admitted to having met Palestinian terrorist Zubeidi in 2015 but also defended and glorified violence and armed rebellion. Zubeidi is a known figure associated with the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an organisation designated as a terrorist entity by various governments and international organisations, including the United States, the European Union and Israel," the letter stated.
It further said, “The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades have been linked to numerous acts of terrorism and attacks targeting civilians, making their association deeply problematic.”
In the letter, Deshpande was quoted as saying, "The Palestinian struggle is a freedom struggle. And there has been no struggle in the history of the world, in the history of colonialism that is entirely 100 per cent nonviolent. It is never! Indian freedom struggle was not 100 per cent non-violent and so on and so forth".
The students expressed their concerns about what impact such activities would have on the “impressionable minds of young students” and the “potential security risks associated with promoting ideologies linked to terrorism” while appealing to the police to investigate the matter.
To set the context, Deshpande was asked by Professor Saha to introduce Arna’s Children, a documentary made by Israeli-Jewish filmmaker Juliano Mer Khamis which focuses on the work of a theatre group for Palestinian children.
Deshpande’s response
Responding to media coverage of his talk at IIT Bombay and the reports of him being a “Hamas apologist”, Sudhanva Deshpande released a statement which accuses the media of “running a misinformation campaign” against him, as well as “whitewashing the genocide and ethnic cleansing” of Palestinians.
Addressing the claim that he “whitewashed” Zubedi, Deshpande said that when he met Zubedi in 2015, he had given up arms and was “advocating for cultural resistance”, by founding the Freedom Theatre Group for a united and egalitarian Palestine for all.
Further, he also accused the media of biased reporting in favour of Israel.
