The technical university created headlines last week by suspending a Dalit student who protested against a religious event on the campus.
An FIR has been registered against. Prof Shaija. (Supplied)
The police have booked a professor at the National Institute of Technology, Calicut (NIT-C), for a Facebook comment “praising” Nathuram Godse.
“Proud of Godse for saving India,” Professor Dr A Shaija of the institute’s Department of Mechanical Engineering commented in a post that eulogised the man who assassinated Mahatma Gandhi. She made the comment from the Facebook profile, Shaija Andavan.
The original post was by a leading lawyer. He posted on a BJP handle, saying, “Hindu Mahasabha activist Nathuram Godse, a hero of many in Bharat.”
After the professor’s comment snowballed into a controversy, the NIT-C Director asked the Registrar to immediately seek an explanation from Prof Shaija.
The professor later deleted the comment. However, her act once again brought media attention to NIT-C, now closed for three days after an uproar over the suspension of a Dalit student for one year.
The student, Vyshak Premkumar, was suspended for an academic year for staging a one-man protest against pro-Sangh Parivar students celebrating on the campus the consecration of Ram Lalla at Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh.
Following widespread protests from within and outside the campus, the authorities put the suspension on hold until an appellant authority decided on his appeal.
Prof Shaija’s comment came on 30 January, the Mahatma death anniversary that is celebrated as Martyr’s Day, even as the NIT-C was grappling with the issues that arose following Premkumar’s suspension.
Though she deleted the comment following the kerfuffle it created, its screenshots started circulating on social media. The Left-leaning Students Federation of India (SFI) and the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) lodged two separate police complaints. The Muslim Students Federation (MSF), the Kerala students Union (KSU), and the Youth Congress, too, joined in.
Based on the SFI’s complaint, the Kunnamangalam police registered a case against the professor under IPC Section 153 (wantonly giving provocation, with intent to cause riot).
The organisations said those who praised the assassin of the Father of the Nation must not be allowed to continue in the academic wing of a famed institution.
Kozhikode’s Congress Lok Sabha member MK Raghavan expressed shock and shame over the inappropriate comment praising Godse by a person holding a responsible post in NIT. The premier institution is in his constituency.
He said that the authorities concerned should take appropriate action.
In his letter to the NIT-C Director, Raghavan said, “Such statements not only reflect poorly on the academic integrity of our institution but also undermine the values we strive to uphold. It is essential to ensure that our academic environment remains inclusive, respectful, and free from intolerance or hate speech.”
In another post on X on Sunday, 4 February, the MP said the Registrar has been asked to seek an explanation from the professor.
“Late last night, I was informed by the Director @nitcofficial that he, in his absentia has directed Registrar to seek an immediate explanation from professor who posted a comment on social media glorifying the assassination of Gandhi and praising Godse’s deed,” Raghavan posted..
Prof Shaija, meanwhile, stated that her comment was not inappropriate.
“My comment was not to appreciate the killing of Gandhiji. I never wanted to do so. I had read Godse’s book, Why I Killed Gandhi. Godse was also a freedom fighter,” she told reporters.
“His book has a lot of information and revelations that the average person does not know. Godse has enlightened us in his book. Against this backdrop, I commented on the advocate’s Facebook post. When I realised that people started distorting my comment, I deleted it,” she added.
Prof Shaija, an NIT-C faculty member for the past 25 years, said the furore over her post was connected to the recent unrest on the campus related to the suspension of the Dalit student.
She said nobody from the institute had sought an explanation from her so far. “I am not a sympathiser of any political party. I am an academician,” she said.
The NIT-C, a technical university, is functioning under the Union Ministry of Human Resources.
Kerala Higher Education Minister R Bindhu on Sunday slammed Prof Shaija for glorifying Gandhi’s assassin Nathuram Godse and termed her recent Facebook comment “ingratitude” and an “insult” to the Father of the Nation.
Responding to the development, Bindu, stating that no other country had witnessed the cruel assassination of its “Father of the Nation” like in India, said, “It (Gandhiji’s assassination) was in fact a wound in the heart of India. There is no greater ingratitude than glorifying it.”
Asserting that teachers are responsible for instilling historical consciousness among students, she told reporters in Kozhikode that Professor’s Shaija’s remark was an insult to the Father of the Nation.
(With PTI inputs)
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