Several university professors have called out the University Grants Commission (UGC) for imposing Central Civil Services Conduct Rules (CCSR) which prohibits all academics to publish material that criticises any current or recent policy of the Central government or a State government, reported The Hindu.
The academics termed the move as “curtailing democratic rights to participate in a host of activities”. Professor Madhavan Palat, who has taught at Jawaharlal Nehru University, told The Hindu, “It will be an excuse to harass people. You can’t give a lecture, publish articles and books. You will have to see, for instance, whether an academic paper hampers relations with a foreign country. It may well be non-enforceable but can be used to harass people.”
“We will have the kind of publications that military men write, which are mainly technical in nature,” he added.
Several economists had criticised Narendra Modi government’s recent economic policy decisions such as Demonetisation and Goods and Services Tax (GST). A book Demonetisation Decoded– co-authored by three JNU economics Professors, was also published in 2017.
A Central University Professor, who didn’t wish to be named, said, “Academic freedom in class for a critical discussion on policies may suffer, something that disciplines like law, political science, economics or journalism, may bear the brunt of.”
Eminent historian K.N. Panikkar also expressed disappointment with the rules and said, “It will be the end of the university. It is meant to be a place for ideas to flourish.”
The Federation of Central Universities Teachers’ Associations also issued a statement: “Several of the new Central universities created by the Central Universities Act, 2009 have adopted the CCS Conduct Rules. The Central University of Kerala recently invoked CCS Conduct Rules to suspend a faculty member for a Facebook post criticising the university administration for getting a student arrested. Now, the net is being cast wider to include the older Central Universities — the most recent case being the imposition of CCS Conduct Rules in Jawaharlal Nehru University.”
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Earlier this year, UGC notified all Central universities that service rules applicable to Union government servants should also be followed by Central universities and thus, by its government servants.
The CCSR clearly states, “No government servant shall, in any radio broadcast, telecast through any electronic media or in any document published in his name or anonymously, pseudonymously or in the name of any other person or in communication to the press or in any public utterance, make any statement of fact or opinion which has the effect of an adverse criticism of any current or recent policy of the Central government or a State government.”