The University of Hyderabad (UoH) has confirmed the rustication of a doctoral student, Mr. Kaluram Palsania from its Department of History for a period of one year. This decision was taken by the Proctorial Board of the University which was set up in the background of derogatory remarks by Mr. Kaluram against Prof. K. Laxminarayana. The Board found that “the student was guilty of posting a public message on social media abusing and questioning the credentials of Prof. Laxminarayana.” It also imposed a fine of Rs. 30000 on the student. The seven member board included a retired judge and a senior police officer, apart from faculty members of the University.
The press release also mentioned, “The University of Hyderabad would like to reiterate that we have zero tolerance for physical or verbal abuse of any member of the University community in the course of discharging their duties. Further, the University, which is among the top-ranked educational institutions in the country, holds in high regard the academic autonomy and integrity of its well-qualified teachers” It added that it fully expected all interaction taking place within the University to be conducted with mutual respect, dignity, and decorum. It appealed to all sections of the campus community to seek redressal of any genuine grievances only through appropriate institutional channels provided for the purpose.
Responding to this decision by the Proctorial Board, Mr. K. Laxminarayana said, “See, the abuse he had used was very bad, derogatory and serious. This could have been booked under the SC-ST atrocities case. But I did not want any such kind of punishment for the student.” He said that there was a lot of discussion among faculty members and students about Mr. Kalsaniya which compelled the University administration to take this decision. He added, “I also came to know about more such incidents in the past. This can’t be tolerated. This is indicative of a degenerative culture and reflects the nature of ABVP leadership at the national level.” Questioning the nature of leadership of ABVP, he said that the University should not yield to the appeals of reduction of punishment.
Notably, Mr. Kaluram Palsaniya, who has a Facebook profile with the name Karan Palsaniya, had posted this message on his profile against Prof. K. Laxminarayana in January 2018,
“Bxxxxxxx Laxminarayana now preaching what is saffronisation. He even don’t know basics of Economics and now preaching about Saffronisation. He has became professor only because of his blackmailing tricks.”
Mr. Kaluram Palsaniya is a PhD student in History and interestingly, a national co-convenor of the ABVP, the student wing of the ruling dispensation. Moreover, the message was posted from a Facebook group managed by a group of students from the University as a response to an exam paper set by Professor Laxminarayana in which he included two questions that appeared critical of the national government’s policies including the “saffronisation of education.”
Prof. K. Laxminarayana has been a part of the UoH for about 30 years and is also a former president of the UoH Teachers’ Association. He had written a formal letter of complaint to the Vice Chancellor and considered it as “highly derogatory, objectionable and targeting my dignity and humble social background from which I rose to the post of professorship”
Responding to the derogatory Facebook message, the professor had earlier said, “The questions were in the context of the present government’s educational policies. No one from the University teaching faculty or its officials raised any objections to the questions. So how can a student of some other discipline attack me in this vicious manner? The intent was to humiliate me publicly by using abusive language. It vitiated the atmosphere on the campus. Surely the officials recognise the urgency of resolving such matters especially after Rohith Vemula’s suicide.”