A letter signed by 1,600 scholars and academics from around the globe, a social media campaign, and a silent sit-in protest on campus — these were the efforts made by scholars at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore to prevent a ‘pro-Israel’ event from taking place. However, their collective efforts yielded no results.
On Monday, September 24, IISc Bangalore, the esteemed research institute, hosted an “India-Israel Business Summit” on its campus, despite repeated requests by the student body to halt the conduction of the event.
Research scholars from the institute told EdexLive that there was a heavy police presence on campus throughout the summit.
One student, speaking on the condition of anonymity, stated, “There was heavy police presence outside the campus where human rights organisations and activists were holding a press meet. Even within the campus, there were police vans, ready to detain anyone who tried to disrupt the summit. A few students have been detained in the past simply for holding placards. We didn’t want to engage with the police again because we needed to focus on completing our PhDs. The level of police presence on campus was already very concerning.”
Citing previous trends on campus, the scholar said that they had little hope that the event would be canceled, but chose to proceed with the letter to IISc Director Professor Govindan Rangarajan nonetheless.
“We knew that the event was not going to be cancelled. IISc does not exactly have a track record of giving in to student protests. We still wanted to make sure that at least our voices are heard,” he said.
In a letter written to Prof Govindan Rangarajan, students and academicians expressed concerns about the event, stating that it is “unconscionable for IISc to encourage collaborations between India and Israel”.
No involvement in the event: IISc
On Sunday night, September 22, at 11.30 pm, the general student body received an email from the IISc Registrar, which claimed that the administration had “no information” about the event being organised on its campus and had only rented out its JN Tata Auditorium for the programme.
However, students assert that they do not find the response from the institute authorities convincing.
“We found this response ridiculous. IISc always seems to know about even the smallest of events happening on campus but somehow, they did not have any knowledge about such a huge event. They were clearly trying to mislead the students,” said the student.
Another statement released by All India Students’ Association (AISA) Karnataka, called this a “lacklustre” response.
“This is a clear lie, given that in the past IISc administration has stopped events like discussions on democracy by activists like Teestha Setalvad, just two hours prior to the event. In fact, IISc scrutinises every event that takes place inside the campus. This morning, IISc invited a huge police force onto the campus and in front of the Auditorium where the summit was organized,” the statement, issued on Monday, September 23, mentioned.
The student further noted that the announcement of the event was made only a week prior to its scheduled date, which is usually not the case for events organised on campus.
“The poster for the event came in one of the unofficial students’ groups, only one week before the event. Usually, big events like these are announced well in advance. I do not want to insinuate why this was the case but it was strange,” a student added.
