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Curbs on South Asian academics criticised

Aligarh: Participants at a seminar organised by the Centre for Women Studies, Aligarh Muslim University, expressed outrage at the treatment meted out to a Sri Lankan delegate who was deported back to Colombo from Chennai, though she had an Indian visa for her visit.

In a statement, participants at a seminar on ‘Reassessing Third World Feminism’ (19 and 20 November) said that Subhangi Hearth, senior lecturer, the Department of Sociology at the University of Colombo, was “unceremoniously deported back to Colombo from Chennai by the Indian immigration authorities in the early hours of November 18 despite the fact that she had an Indian visa for her visit stamped on her passport.”

The statement also criticised “the insistence of the Government of India that the seminar should be cleared by the Ministry of Home Affairs” because of which there was no participation from Pakistan despite the two delegates having their visas.

“It is obvious that such an attitude irreparably hurts the cause of academic research in India and, especially, that of co-operation between South Asian countries,” the statement noted.

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