MELBOURNE, 21 April 2022: Since the 16 (earlier 13) fellows who quit the Australia India Institute (AII) raised issues of ‘academic freedom’ and ‘interference’ by the Indian High Commissioner, the issue has become a hot potato in the academic and community circles. The story was first broken by the ‘NRI Affairs’, later there was another story in The Age and different interviews in the wire. in and Mojo story.
The Indian government today reacted to the said stories saying they were ‘not accurate’ and dragging India into the AII controversy was ‘unjustified’. Official Spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Arindam Bagchi today (April 21, 2022) in his weekly media answered to a question on the subject by a journalist.
AII’s first CEO and founder, Mr. Amitabh Mattoo had told Karan Thapar in an interview with the Wire. in, that the current AII CEO Lisa Singh has told her there has been no interference in the AII working from the Indian High Commissioner in Australia. But a public rebuttal from her is yet to come.
In a nutshell, the stories in the NRI Affairs, The Age, and other media outlets allege quoting the letter by the 13 AII fellows on March 29 and an earlier letter by 24 academic fellows on 15 December 2020, expressing concerns over the Australia India Institute orienting itself towards issues of bilateral relations of Australia and India. They emphasized the need to shape the future of the AII around the values of academic freedom, independence, impartiality, inclusiveness, quality, diversity and respect for scholarly dissent.
The Age reported, “In its statement, the University of Melbourne said it, and the institute “respect the decision of the Academic Fellows who recently tendered their resignations”.
“Australia-India relationship continues to be one of the most strategically important international relationships for the University of Melbourne and we are deeply committed to growing and building our ties with India,” the statement said.
The institute’s strategic direction “was developed through close consultation with many of its fellows and stakeholders, and has been endorsed by the Council of the University of Melbourne”, the statement said.
“The University of Melbourne is committed to academic freedom and freedom of speech. They are central to our core values and identity. The University has been working on strengthening our policies in this area for the past two years and take any allegations of this nature very seriously.”
The Indian High Commission said in a statement that the University of Melbourne had “responded suitably to the story”, and this was “not a matter for the High Commission of India to comment on”.
Meanwhile, in an interview with the wire. in, the founder of the AII and its first CEO, “Professor Amitabh Mattoo does accept that this might have happened during the term of the director who succeeded him and who preceded the present director.
Mattoo also said he will have a word with India’s present high commissioner to Australia, Manpreet Vohra, and, if necessary, with external affairs minister, S. Jaishankar, to ensure that steps are taken to rebuild trust with the Institute’s fellows and remove perceptions of governmental interference in their academic freedom.”
Meanwhile, Thomas Blom Hansen, who is the Reliance-Dhirubhai Ambani Professor of South Asian Studies and Professor of Anthropology at Stanford University in America, spoke to Karan Thapar about the “deliberate and last-minute” downgrading of a lecture he gave in May 2019, not liked by the Indian government.
INTERVIEW WITH THOMAS BLOM HANSEN
The Australia India Institute is part of the University of Melbourne and funded by the Australian federal government, Victoria state government, and the University of Melbourne.
