ITANAGAR, 30 Apr: Rajiv Gandhi University (RGU) has sent a show cause notice to research scholar Prem Taba for leading a protest against the closure of the university’s hostels and for abusing the dean of students’ welfare and the warden.
The university has given him two days to respond why he should not be “rusticated from the hostel and (his) scholarship be discontinued for the aforesaid charges.”
The letter was signed by the RGU registrar (see letter).
The notice said that Taba had led from the front to “humiliate both the teachers and literally scolded them with all abusive language and condemned/accused the university authority without mindful of the grave situations the country is facing today due to sudden surge of the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic.”
It further said that the scholar defamed the image of the university in this hour of crisis by circulating misinformation/campaign on social media and in the print media on the issue of closing down of the hostels. The letter further said that the protest was in violation of the Disaster Management (DM) Act.
Taba in a statement said that the notice was “a desperate attempt to silence, wipe out dissenting voice through intimidation. The campus atmosphere has become so threatening, people are afraid to say anything against the authority.”
“The accusations levelled against me are false and baseless,” he said, adding that the meeting, which had been convened by the students’ welfare dean, was a debate session, and that many scholars were present as witnesses.
Regarding the DM Act, he said that on 28 April, the vice chancellor called in two battalions of the CRPF, and that local police were present, including the Papum Pare SP, the DSP, the Doimukh OC and the Doimukh SDO.
He said the police did not arrest the protesters because there was no violation of the Covid-19 protocol.
As reported earlier, the students had protested in the campus, seeking recall of the order to close the hostels.