Teachers, students join protest against Panikkar

New Delhi, July 7 (UNI) A group of artists, writers, students and teachers today held a protest near the Gujarat Bhavan here against the assault on a University professor by alleged members of the VHP and ABVP at Ahmedabad yesterday.

They said yesterday's attack was ''a move by the Sangh Parivar to continue their attempt to impose their politically motivated cultural agenda by fear and terror''.

''It is a sad reflection of our communalised polity in India,'' they said.

Prof Shivaji Pannikkar, the suspended Dean-in charge of the fine arts faculty of the Maharaja Sayajirao University in Vadodara, was roughed up when he went to inugurate an audio-visual exhibition organised by ANHAD in support of democracy and secularism. The Professor had been suspended following a controversy that erupted in May with the arrest of Fine Arts student Chandramohan.

A group of BJP activists had barged into the campus while an exhibition of Chandramohan's artworks was on for a jury review. They had claimed the paintings were objectionable and hurt religious sentiments.

Panikkar had come out in support of Chandramohan, saying the exhibition was part of an examination process and and not for public display.

Dr Chanmundal, a JNU professor, said the government should take action against the local BJP leader Niraj Jain who led the attack and called police in the campus to arrest the student. Artists should be respected and given freedom to express their thoughts, he added.

Another JNU professor, Kabita Singh, said the suspension of Prof Pannikkar had been condemned even by the UGC which has termed it an ''unwarranted act''.

UNI