WEDNESDAY, MAY 9TH: The annual examinations of final year students at the Faculty of Fine Arts (FFA), Baroda, are in their last stage. Examiners are going around evaluating students’ artworks and taking the viva voce. In departments, where examinations are over, parents, friends of graduating students, alumni, and special invitees, are allowed to see the display. At about 3.30 pm, Niraj Jain, a city-based BJP activist, storms into the Faculty with several media-persons, goes straight to the Printmaking Department, confronts Chandra- mohan, a post-graduate student, whose work is displayed in a room on the first floor, manhandles him, calls the police, has him and his friend, Venkat Rao, taken into custody to the Sayajigunj Police Station. Chandramohan, who comes from a family of carpenters near Warangal, graduated from JNTU, Hyderabad. He was one of the three Lalit Kala Akademi awardees from Gujarat in 2005-06.

The police neither produce a warrant nor a copy of the FIR. They don’t contact the Faculty Dean or University Vice-Chancellor (VC) before taking the students into custody. Upon overhearing the rumpus, the officiating Dean, Prof. Shivaji Panikkar, and other teachers (busy with the examination process) rush to where Jain is shouting, abusing, and threatening teachers and students. The Dean informs the VC about these events, but no help is forthcoming. ACP Parmar orders the removal of the “offensive” artworks, but later seals the room where they are displayed. The Registrar-In-Charge arrives as the sealing process ends. The students send a written complaint to the Police Commissioner who asks them to lodge it at the Sayajigunj Police Station. It is not accepted. So, students stage a sit-down until it is registered. The students manage to get Venkat Rao released. The Dean’s statement is taken and a copy of the FIR is released. Chandramohan has been arrested under Section 153A of the IPC.

THURSDAY, MAY 10TH: Chandramohan is produced in the court at 10.30 am. He is heckled by ‘saffron’ activists already at the Court. The FIR now has two new sections, 293A and 293B. The hearing is postponed to 3.30 pm and then to the following day at 2.30 pm. The judge asks for Chandramohan to be moved to the Baroda Central Jail. Faculty staff and students approach the VC with a memorandum asking that the University file an FIR against Jain for disrupting the exams, and extend legal help to Chandramohan. The VC demands an unconditional apology from them for offending public sentiments. During this meeting, Jain walks into the VC’s chamber where the VC warmly greets him.  The VC says that the University will not file an FIR, but that the Dean can do so in his personal capacity. This proposition is not acceptable to the FFA.

FRIDAY, MAY 11TH: Chandramohan is produced before the Court at 2.30 pm but the judge is absent and the hearing adjourned till Monday. In an attempt to communicate with the media and the public, students decide to put up an exhibition on the history of nudity in Hindu Sacred art and Western art traditions. As the exhibition is being mounted, University officials arrive with verbal instructions to stop it. Prof. Panikkar, who is meeting with other staff members at the Regional Documentation Centre (also known as the ‘Archives’) discusses this with the staff, and they ask for written orders. The Registrar-In-Charge arrives shortly after this with the written order. Many BJP activists (with women from their cadres) arrive at the exhibition and try to pick quarrels with students and teachers. Nobody responds. The Pro Vice-Chancellor (PVC) arrives. He asks, then orders the Dean to take down the exhibition. No mention is made of Chandramohan who is in jail or the other demands of the Faculty. Prof. Panikkar refuses to do so, saying he will stand by the decision of the staff and students. The authorities storm out, and with police help, dismantle the exhibition and seal the Centre. That night, a suspension order is pasted on the door of Prof. Panikkar’s residence. No reason is given. (He is later charge-sheeted on July 24th.)

SATURDAY, MAY 12TH: Faculty teachers go on mass leave to protest the suspension and inform the VC that “decisions taken up till now, and conveyed to your office by Prof. Panikkar, were unanimous decisions made by all staff members”. The Baroda University Teachers Association condemns the suspension and sealing of the Centre.

SUNDAY, MAY 13TH: Students begin a silent dharna at the Faculty. Students from the BJP-supported ABVP enter the Faculty, shouting provocative slogans against Prof. Panikkar and Chandramohan. As the FFA students remain silent, their efforts at provoking a clash fail. Students apply for the police’s permission to have a rally near the Faculty on May 14th, when alumni, artists, and supporters from across the country are reaching Baroda to express solidarity. Police intelligence personnel meet Faculty staff to dissuade them from doing so, citing potential law and order problems. They suggest the meeting be held within FFA premises. Staff members agree. The police assure them that no other group will be given permission to hold a rally at the same time and that their public meeting will not be disrupted. This permission is collected at 7.45 pm. But at 9.30 pm, another ‘permission’ arrives from the police that overrides the earlier one. It says that they have a letter from the University, wherein, the University has instructed their internal security to allow only those with identity cards into FFA to prevent “unauthorized trespassing in the premises”. It also says that the protesters must seek the University’s permission for holding a public meeting inside its premises.

MONDAY, MAY 14TH: Students arrive at the FFA to find all their posters torn down while those of the ABVP are intact. Only those with FFA Identity Cards are allowed entry. Senior, retired Faculty members and alumni wait outside in the scorching sun. Students inside continue with the dharna, those outside form a human chain as a silent protest along the Faculty wall. In the meanwhile, news of Chandramohan’s release on bail, after five days in jail, reaches the Faculty. It is decided that after the day’s protest, students would go on their scheduled vacation and the agitation will continue when the Faculty re-opens.  By 1.45 pm, artists, alumni, and others gather in large numbers, adding to the chain. ABVP activists march towards the Faculty shouting abusive slogans and making violent gestures. A scuffle ensues between the police, University security personnel, and the ABVP, in front of the gate. ACP Parmar orders everyone out of the Faculty. The police detain16 persons. Only 4 of these are from the ABVP.  The artist community gathers at the nearby public garden. It is decided that the Faculty will host www.fineartsfacultymsu.blogspot to share information and build a protest archive.

Subsequent Developments:  The University forms a Committee to investigate events at the FFA. It comprises Prof. Syed Masood, Dean, Faculty of Law, Dr Prakash Shah and Mukund Shah  (both Syndicate members) and advocate Rajendra Trivedi (a Senate member). The FFA expresses a lack of faith in this Committee since most of its members have political affiliations and none have knowledge of the FFA, its programmes, curricula, or structure. Understanding art education and having academic credentials in the humanities, cultural studies, or social sciences, are obviously not the criteria for membership. An email document from the VC as a Position Paper has already found Prof. Panikkar guilty and the Committee appears to have been formed only to frame charges against him. Further, the University Syndicate ratifies the VC’s decision on the suspension issue and a caveat is filed against Prof. Panikkar at the Sessions Court, Baroda, and the University Tribunal, Ahmedabad.

On June 9th, the FFA staff meets the Governor of Gujarat, in his capacity as Visitor to the University, and presents him with a Memorandum, apprising him of the situation. The staff requests that an FIR be lodged by the University against Jain and his associates for intruding into the FFA premises and that artworks be released to enable the completion of evaluation. They request that the suspension of Prof. Panikkar be unconditionally revoked and that the Governor inspect the University’s actions with regard to the FFA, which compromised its autonomy and violated the sanctity and integrity of a higher educational institution. The staff also solicits appropriate action against the VC for his abdication of responsibility and failure to take action against intruders, who disrupted University examinations. They want a judicial-level committee to be set up to inquire into the developments thereafter – like the announcement of a Rs. 1 lakh reward for a nude portrait of the Prophet by Deepak Shah, Senate member, M. S. University, which led to the appearance of such a portrait in the main University Campus and resulted in communal tension in the old city area.

When the FFA re-opens on June 15th, the Dean, Prof. Deepak Kannal, has returned. His efforts at mediation fail. Students continue their dharna and initiate unusual protests like draping Faculty buildings in black. On July 5th, Prof. Kannal with Prof. Panikkar, Vasudevan Akkitham, from the Painting Department, and S. Santhosh, from the Art History Department, meet University officials to work out a solution. Instead, the officials accuse the Faculty of malpractice. Prof. Kannal resigns to protest against University apathy.

On July 6th, Prof. Panikkar travels to Ahmedabad to inaugurate a students’ poster exhibition. At the venue gate, 15 to 20 assailants attack his taxi, but he manages to escape. On July 9th, ACUA (Artists, Academics, and Citizens for University Autonomy) organizes a Panel Discussion on Higher Education and University Autonomy. The question-answer session is disturbed by ‘saffron’ activists in the audience.

A huge sigh of relief is heaved on July 12th when Nawal Kishore Sharma, Governor, Gujarat, finally appoints a Fact Finding Committee, comprising Prof. Y. K. Alagh, Chairman, IRMA, Prof. Sudarshan Iyengar, VC, Gujarat Vidyapith, and Haku Shah, artist and alumni, FFA. The Committee is to submit its report within three weeks with a detailed examination of facts, of roles and behaviour of University functionaries, as well as suggest measures for an amicable solution to the existing crisis and long-term procedures to prevent such incidents in the future. If all goes well, this Committee’s report will arrive at the same time that Prof. Panikkar’s three-month suspension ends on August 11th

(Sandhya Bordewekar filed this Report on July 27th, 2007.
The next ART India addresses and explores the Censorship issue in greater detail. – Editor)