Curb on foreign scholars visiting Bha_rata

[Guest guest]

The Times of India News Service

 

NEW DELHI: Prof David Shulman, author of the

landmark 'Tamil Temple Myths: Sacrificial Divine

Marriage in the South Indian Saiva Tradition', may be

well-known in India and abroad for his work on

Hinduism, but the Ministry of Home Affairs would be the

happiest if he were not to be invited to present a paper

the next time Madras University holds a seminar on

comparative religion.

 

If the university were nevertheless to insist on his

presence, it would have to write to the home ministry and

apply for `security clearance' for Prof Shulman. Only if

the MHA certifies that his participation in the seminar

would not be a threat to the country or the government -

a process that the ministry says can take from four to six

weeks - would an Indian embassy abroad grant the

professor a visa.

 

Call it paranoia or a perverse form of protectionism, but

under `secret' guidelines (OM No. 25022/40/97/F.IV)

issued recently by the MHA, Indian universities and

academic bodies have been told that foreign scholars

``should not be generally considered to attend

conferences of a political, semi-political, communal or

religious nature''. In addition, universities organising

conferences on subjects ``related to human rights or

sensitive technical subjects which can be utilised as a

platform for any particular line of propaganda or where

the subject matter...is of a purely national or local

character'' should try and avoid inviting foreign

academics. Where invitations are unavoidable, the MHA

will vet which scholars may come and which may not.

 

The MHA's new guidelines, dated September 1, 2000,

are now being forwarded by the HRD ministry to all

universities and deemed universities with the advice: ``It is

requested that henceforth applications in the prescribed

proforma (in six sets) complete in all respects may be

forwarded...as per revised guidelines at least one month

and a half before the commencement of the conference''.

 

While a foreign scholar wishing to attend a seminar on a

subject other than the above mentioned categories need

not be security-vetted by the MHA, Indian university

departments planning to invite academics from Sri Lanka,

Pakistan, China, Bangladesh or Afghanistan must get

prior clearance from both the MHA and the Ministry of

External Affairs regardless of the subject of the

conference.

 

Thus Prof Shuxiong Liu of Peking University, China's

leading Iqbal scholar, would have to be screened by the

MHA and the MEA the next time Lucknow University

wants him to attend a seminar. What happens if he were

to come on a tourist visa anyway? S K Das,

under-secretary in the MHA and the point-man for the

implementation of the new rules, told The Times of

India, ``If he just sits and listens, that's OK.'' But if he

stands up and makes a comment about the poetics of

Iqbal and Herder? ``Speaking at a seminar (without prior

clearance) will mean a violation of the Foreigners' Act

and visa rules'', Das said.

 

According to Das, the new guidelines are actually ``less

stringent'' than previous guidelines issued in 1986 in that

the clearance process has been decentralised.

Universities need not apply directly to the MHA but

could go through their nodal ministry, HRD. He said the

controls were needed to prevent a situation which ``may

cause embarrassment to the government or to friendly

countries''.

 

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