Maharashtra: Professor sent on leave stands ground, minister warns of action

MUMBAI: The controversy over the Mumbai University professor sent on forced leave three days ago, allegedly for posting a ‘derogatory’ remark against Congress’s Rahul Gandhi, continued to simmer on Thursday with home minister Anil Deshmukh warning of further action and the professor digging in his heels, saying he has no plans to delete the video.
Congress is pushing for stringent action against Yogesh Soman, director of MU’s Academy of Theatre Arts, while BJP has condemned the steps taken against him.
Deshmukh, part of the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress government, called Soman’s statement “offensive” and pointed out that a professor’s work is to teach, not give statements like these. He has been sent on leave for now but soon action will be taken, he added.
“I stand by my statement in the video. I do not plan to delete it,” said Soman when contacted. “There is no pressure on me, but I would not like to officially comment further. Whatever clarification I have to give, I will do it before the inquiry committee,” said Soman, who’s been associated with the academy for eight months.
Soman has been acting in experimental and commercial theatre and cinema in Hindi and Marathi for last 30 years and recently played the defence minister in ‘Uri: The Surgical Strike’.
The university maintained that action against Soman was initiated after receiving complaints from students over academic issues.
Students from the academy said they had first written to the vicechancellor on November 25, much before the video was posted. “It is a coincidence. The director doubled the intake of the programme to 50 though the institute does not have adequate resources. Few visiting faculties promised in the beginning came to teach us. He did not have any administrative or academic experience and he was running the programme like a theatre workshop,” alleged one student. Some groups alleged rules were tweaked to hire him.
On December 14, Soman had posted a video where he said about Rahul Gandhi: ‘You truly aren’t Savarkar... The truth is, you aren’t a true Gandhi either... You don’t have any values… .”