Hyderabad: The head (HoD) of the Political Science department at the University of Hyderabad (UoH), Professor Kham Khan Suan Hausing has been summoned by a district court in Manipur following his recent comments involving the Meitei outfits and the BJP-run state government on the ongoing ethnic violence that has ravaged the state since May.
The chief judicial magistrate (CJM) of the Imphal East district court has directed the notice to the professor for his recent interview with The Wire. He is required to appear for the hearing on July 28.
The summons comes after a complaint filed by Moirangthem Manihar Singh, a social worker from Imphal, who alleged that Hausing made ‘derogatory remarks on religious sites’ associated with the Meitei community, such as Koubru and Thangjing.
A USB drive containing the contents of the interview was submitted by Singh as proof.
After examining the petition, the chief justice magistrate levelled charges under sections 153 (A) (promoting enmity on religious grounds), 200 (knowingly making false statements), 295 (A) (outraging religious feelings), 298 (verbal insults to religious feelings) 505 (1) (with intent to incite, or likely to incite, any class or community of persons to commit any offence against any other class or community) and 120 (B) (party to a criminal conspiracy).
In a tweet, the professor said: “If a majoritarian state and its regime chose to use its coercive monopoly of power to silence truth and violate human rights with impunity, we have to remain united, reclaim and fight for these #ManipurViolence @UNCHRS @ABC @CNN @BBCWorld.”
‘Threat to academic freedom, life’
Meanwhile, students of Hyderabad University state that Professor Hausing has been writing on the ongoing Manipur violence with ‘great nuance’ and condemned the charges filed against the professor.
Demanding the charges be dropped against Professor Hausing, students from his department in a statement said that the recent development is not just a threat to his academic freedom but also poses a great danger to his life.
Voicing the same sentiments, members of the Student Federation of India (SFI) released a statement that read, “Academic freedom and dissent should not be considered a crime. Such cases highly discourage critical and innovative ideas in higher-education spaces.”
The All India Students’ Association of the UoH also demanded that the charges should be rolled back.
“Hausing is a prominent scholar on North-East politics and federalism. Attacking such a prominent scholar is nothing but an attack on academic freedom. We stand in solidarity with the professor. We strongly believe that peace and harmony must be the utmost priority in Manipur at the moment,” it added.
