LSR snub for Professor & BJP leader: First invites him for Ambedkar Jayanti talk, then cancels it

New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s national spokesperson Guru Prakash Pawan was supposed to speak on Ambedkar Jayanti at one of Delhi’s prestigious colleges but the last-minute changes by students body sparked a controversy.

The Lady Shri Ram College (LSR) had invited Guru Paswan to share his thoughts on the occasion but just a day before the talk session, it withdrew the invitation on back of protests by students body. Paswan, who is also the Assistant Professor of Law at Patna University called this an ‘intolerance of highest level’.

Delhi | I was invited by LSR college for the event on Ambedkar Jayanti but was informed yesterday that due to a protest by the students union group, the show has been cancelled. It’s an epitome of intolerance: BJP national spokesperson Guru Prakash Paswan pic.twitter.com/U3VArYEonp

— ANI (@ANI) April 14, 2022

The invitation and then snub by the college students cell has elicited reactions on Twitter with many calling it ‘intolerance of the elite’. Questions are being asked as to why a professor was snubbed & humiliated by students. As a Dalit intellectual, he could have added much value to the discourse but the college administration succumbed to protests by some lobby, some claimed.

BJP spokesperson himself took objection to the campus ‘intolerance’ and wrote on Twitter, “can the subaltern speak?”

Can the subaltern speak?
My experience of #CancelCulture! #AmbedkarJayanti pic.twitter.com/MSB9iQ1UmX

— Guru Prakash Paswan (@IGuruPrakash) April 13, 2022

Invitation & Cancellation: How it panned out

The SC & ST department of LSR college had organised a discourse setting talk session called ‘Ambedkar beyond Constitution’ on the occasion of Ambedkar Jayanti today. Guru Paswan was set to deliver a lecture on the Baba Saheb, on an invitation by the SC/ST student cell over zoom.
On Tuesday, Paswan’s invitation to the college event was rescinded apparently on back of ‘outcry from the student body’.

In a text message, it was conveyed that the event was called off to avoid ceding college space for ‘political posturing’, as recent fracas in JNU & Karnataka may echo during and would bring ‘unnecessary attention’ to college.