Forced to Resign in 24 hours for anti-war view in Modi's India
India attacked a border town in Pakistan creating a situation that may turn out similar responses from Pakistan. It was a haughty move by Modi's Hindutvadi government, which created an environment of hate crime against minority Muslims and Christians. The so-called terrorist attack by a disgruntled Kashmiri mujahid that killed dozens of Indian occupation forces was not a question of why but when, something that Indian government and its extremist Hindus have not come to grip with.
War does not solve any problem but makes things worse. Sadly, when hysteria for war runs high it is always difficult to speak out the plain truth, which is unpopular.
Read the story below about an academic who spoke her mind and how she was treated in Modi's India.
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Madhumita Ray, an assistant professor with the School of Rural Management in KIIT University, had to resign from her post for her anti-war and ‘anti-army’ views in a discussion on leading Odia TV channel Kanak TV on February 18.
War does not solve any problem but makes things worse. Sadly, when hysteria for war runs high it is always difficult to speak out the plain truth, which is unpopular.
Read the story below about an academic who spoke her mind and how she was treated in Modi's India.
----------
Madhumita Ray, an assistant professor with the School of Rural Management in KIIT University, had to resign from her post for her anti-war and ‘anti-army’ views in a discussion on leading Odia TV channel Kanak TV on February 18.
The nationwide war mongering that has followed the Pulwama
terrorist attack claimed its first victim in Odisha when Madhumita Ray, an
assistant professor with the School of Rural Management in KIIT University, had
to resign from her post for her anti-war and ‘anti-army’ views in a discussion
on leading Odia TV channel Kanak TV on February 18. Notably, Achyut Samanta,
the founder of KIIT, is also a Rajya Sabha member from the ruling Biju Janata
Dal (BJD).
There was a heated debate between Ray and a retired Colonel
of Indian Army Purna Chandra Patnaik on the desirability of war with Pakistan
with the former sticking to her ‘no war’ views and calling for a political
process in Kashmir and the Colonel calling her an ‘anti-national’ on live
television. Significantly, this particular edition of the popular show
‘Manoranjan Mishra Live’, however, is not available on the channel’s website.
Ray says she was asked to resign ‘within 24 hours’ by the
university authorities two days after the show was aired on February 18 despite
the fact that she was entitled to a one-month notice as per the terms of
service. “I chose to resign rather than give up my freedom of expression. The
next morning I got a message saying my resignation had been accepted, and
within 15 minutes I had a man from HR in my room asking me to sign the
relieving letter. I did not want to engage with anyone after that, so February
21 was my last day,” she says.
But the university flatly denied the allegation that Ray was
forced to resign. “She has resigned citing some personal reason as per the
information received from the HR department of our institute,” Ms. Shradhanjali
Nayak, chief public relations officer (CPRO) of KIIT, told Outlook.
Asked why Kanak TV took down the show from its website,
Tanaya Patnaik, Executive Editor, Eastern Media Limited (EML), the media house
that owns the channel, said; “First of all, the show was never uploaded. So,
there is no question of taking it down. Second, it did not go down well with
the general sentiment at that point. That’s why we didn’t want to aggravate the
issue further,” she told Outlook.
But how did the channel determine that the general sentiment
was against the views expressed by Ray during the show? “Well, our Editor
Manoranjan Mishra received a lot of phone calls after the show was aired. Then
there were plenty of reactions on the social media too,” she said.
Patnaik, daughter of Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, the owner of EML
and BJD Rajya Sabha member, also denied that the decision had anything to do
with her father’s political affiliation. “It’s completely baseless. The
decision had nothing to do with politics. It is just that given the mood of the
people, we did not want to exacerbate the issue further,” Tanaya said.
Notwithstanding the denial of Tanaya Patnaik, there is no
end to speculation that the decision not to upload the show on its website was
taken after a nudge from the party supremo. What lends a semblance of credibility
to the speculation is the fact that like the senior Patnaik, KIIT founder
Achyuta Samanta is also a RS MP.
BJD supremo and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has acted
according to the ‘public mood’ earlier too, most notably in the Abhijit Iyer
case when he suddenly decided to drop all charges against the Delhi based
defence analyst after keeping him in jail for over 40 days for some ‘anti-Odia’
tweets once he realised that sympathy for Iyer was growing among the people due
to his long incarceration.
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