JNU Cancels Seminars On West Asia Conflict Featuring Ambassadors From Iran, Palestine And Lebanon

Three seminars at Jawaharlal Nehru University’s Centre for West Asian Studies, intended to address the ongoing conflict in West Asia and feature separate talks by the Iranian, Palestinian, and Lebanese Ambassadors to India, were reportedly cancelled due to “unavoidable circumstances.”

On Thursday, just hours before Dr Iraj Elahi, the Iranian Ambassador, was set to address a seminar titled “How Iran sees the recent developments in West Asia” at 11 am, seminar coordinator Sima Baidya informed students via email at 8.09 am that the event had been cancelled.

In the same email, Baidya announced the cancellation of two other upcoming seminars: a 7 November seminar on violence in Palestine, which was to be addressed by Palestinian Ambassador Adnan Abu Al-Haija, and a 14 November seminar on the situation in Lebanon, to be addressed by Lebanese Ambassador Dr Rabie Narsh.

The decision to cancel the events was taken by the university, according to the Iranian and Lebanese Embassies sources cited in an Indian Express report.

The sources added that they were unaware of the reasons.

According to the university sources cited in the IE report, the events were cancelled due to concerns raised by senior faculty members at the School of International Studies (SIS) (under which the Centre for West Asian Studies operates), regarding potential protests that such seminars on polarising issues could provoke on campus.

“The purpose of such seminars is to gain insights into the perspectives of West Asian countries amidst the current geopolitical climate. However, there were concerns about how the campus might react,” a university source was quoted as saying in the IE report.

In a communication to all SIS Centres on Thursday, SIS Dean Amitabh Mattoo reiterated an earlier statement, noting, “We are living in a charged global atmosphere, where sentiments can get easily inflamed. This is to request you to take the Dean into confidence before you invite any diplomat to the School for any public event. Please also ensure that any individual faculty initiative in this regard is routed through you. We also want to ensure that every visitor to the School, especially at the Ambassadorial level, is accorded proper protocol. SIS has always stood for maintaining the highest standards of academic freedom and excellence while ensuring that the integrity of our platforms are not violated or exploited by vested interests.”

Sameena Hameed, Chairperson of the Centre for West Asian Studies said that the seminar with Iranian Ambassador had been postponed on Wednesday, and the other two events were not “officially scheduled” by the Centre.

“The seminars for the Palestinian Ambassador’s talk and the Lebanese Ambassador’s talk were not officially scheduled by the Centre. As for today’s seminar with the Iranian Ambassador, the Centre had communicated that it would be postponed because it was organised at the very last minute, and we were not in a position to follow the required protocols to host the Ambassador. There may have been some miscommunication at some level,” she said.

Hameed added that these Ambassadors have been coming to the university for a long time, and they will continue to come and interact with students.

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