The Wire Staff 
New Delhi: The controversy over South Asian University’s notice to a doctoral scholar and the disciplinary action against his Sri Lankan supervisor has taken a new turn.
After the Sri Lankan High Commissioner to India retracted her earlier concerns, claiming incomplete information, Sasanka Perera, the prominent Sri Lankan sociologist who resigned from the university, accused her actions of being “not only unfathomable but disgraceful”.
The South Asian University (SAU) is an international body, jointly managed and financed by eight SAARC member states. It is hosted by India and supervised by administered by Ministry of External Affairs, as per the provisions of the South Asian University Act 2008.
Last November, a doctorate scholar had submitted a proposal on Kashmir’s ethnography and politics, which was approved by the supervisor, Professor Sasanka Perera, before being sent to the Dean of Social Sciences.
Nearly six months later, the university first sent a notice, seeking an explanation, to Perera in April and then to the doctorate student in May.
The notice asked the scholar to justify citing a private YouTube video he had uploaded, which featured his interview with Noam Chomsky, where the well-known linguist, reportedly claimed that Modi “comes from a radical Hindutva tradition” and is trying to “dismantle Indian secular democracy” and “impose Hindu technocracy”.
Professor Sasanka Perera
According to the Indian Express, Sri Lankan High Commissioner Kshenuka Senewiratne met with SAU President K.K. Aggarwal on April 23, where she allegedly expressed her “concerns” about “an intended inquiry” against Perera and referred to the “spirit of academic freedom”.
She followed up the meeting in a letter dated May 12, in which she described the situation as “extremely disconcerting”, as reported by the newspaper.
However, the Sri Lankan High Commissioner in a response to the Indian Express report published on August 9 said that the report gave a “false impression that even with the criticism of the NDA government by Mr Chomsky being included in the research proposal, concern was flagged by me on the action envisaged at that juncture by the SAU, with regard to Prof Perera.”
The Sri Lankan High Commissioner, who had written to the South Asian University (SAU) over action against a PhD supervisor from Sri Lanka, said Thursday that at the time, she was not aware that the action was linked to a PhD scholar citing linguist Noam Chomsky’s criticism of the NDA government in his interview.
On July 27, the Indian Express had first reported that SAU had issued notices to a research scholar and his PhD supervisor, Lankan sociologist Sasanka Perera, demanding an explanation regarding their conduct. The PhD student’s doctoral research proposal, on Kashmir’s ethnography and politics, had cited American linguist Noam Chomsky’s criticism of the NDA government.
Also read: South Asian University Issues Notice to PhD Student Who Cited Criticism of Modi: Report
On April 23, Sri Lankan High Commissioner Kshenuka Senewiratne, in a meeting with SAU president K K Aggarwal, expressed her “concerns” regarding “an intended inquiry” against Perera. She also wrote a letter to Aggarwal on May 12.
In response to the Indian Express report on her letter (August 4), the High Commissioner wrote to the newspaper that it gave a “false impression that even with the criticism of the NDA government by Mr Chomsky being included in the research proposal, concern was flagged by me on the action envisaged at that juncture by the SAU, with regard to Prof Perera.”
She stated that the representations were “were solely made on this basis and also in accordance with the information provided by Prof Perera to the High Commission in mid-April, which at no instance had any reference to the aforementioned interview of Mr Chomsky”
“It is hereby emphasised that at the time of the representations being made by me to the University, the information of the said interview had not been divulged to the High Commission. It may be pertinent to note that the last letter from the SAU regretted the High Commission not knowing the full facts of the case, which seems in hindsight interalia to be reference to this interview content,” she wrote, as quoted by the Indian Express.
She further claimed that “the reference to the inclusion of the said interview in the scholar’s proposal was first learnt by the High Commission from The Indian Express article”.
Senewiratne also opined that the Indian Express report “could unfortunately create negativity on the existing robust bilateral relations”.
“As a diplomatic representative guided by the provisions of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961, and having a duty not to associate in the internal affairs of the host country, no representation at a diplomatic level would have been made to the SAU if there had been any information made available on the stated interview, contained in the aforementioned research proposal,” she stated.
In response to the Sri Lankan High Commissioner’s latest retraction and claim of not being informed, Perera issued a statement that her letter “makes it difficult for me to be silent, as now it is a matter of my trust in the integrity of the Sri Lankan state when it comes to protecting its citizens overseas, being dismantled”.
“My interest is only about the role of the High Commissioner for throwing me under the bus, publicly disregarding my services to the nation for over twenty years and to the South Asian University for nearly thirteen years. As a representative of the Sri Lankan state, whose foremost responsibility it is to look after the welfare of the country’s citizens abroad, this is not only unfathomable but disgraceful,” he wrote in his statement.
He stated that the High Commissioner’s claim that he had not “divulged” the details about the student’s proposal and its reference to Noam Chomsky’s criticism of Prime Minister Modi was “economical with the truth.”
“When I met the High Commissioner in her office at 3.00 pm on 18 April 2024, my conversation was based on a letter dated 13th April 2024 in which I had explained to her the situation up to that time. In the meeting, I clearly mentioned that the bone of contention for the university was the criticism of the Prime Minister in a quote from Prof. Chomsky, which was used by my student in his proposal,” he stated.
The Sri Lankan sociologist, who founded the department at SAU, noted that he had pointed out that the quote was neither his nor the student’s opinion, but was used as part of standard academic practice in the social sciences.
“At this point, I also suggested that she go through the documents I had at hand at the time (hard copies of which I took to the meeting) so that the entire case was clear – including inferences to Prof. Chomsky and the Prime Minister. She did not hesitate to tell me categorically that she did not need to see these. I was neither requested to furnish anything else at the meeting or subsequently,” he stated.
Perera commented that it was “unfortunate that she believes – as the legal representative of Sri Lanka in India – that an unfortunate and unreasonable academic matter from a university could negatively impact bilateral relations between India and Sri Lanka”.
“Are the relations between our two countries so fragile? Are the leaders of these countries and their officials so naive that they are not able to distinguish between a diplomatic incident and a university matter albeit of wide-ranging academic consequence?” he said.
He also claimed that SAU President K.K. Aggarwal’s letter to the Sri Lankan envoy was revealing. “Further, her reference to the SAU President’s letter dated 20 May 2024 where he is quoted as saying the High Commissioner did not know the full facts of the case, ‘which seems in hindsight interalia to be reference to this interview content’ is a clear indication of prejudice, conjecture and a sad attempt to justify one’s own bias, rather than fact. Again, I was never consulted at any point for further information though I have kept the High Commissioner informed about each step of the inquiry process”.
Perera asserted that the “role of the Sri Lankan High Commissioner in this instance is a clear violation of my rights to be protected by the Sri Lankan state apparatus when overseas”.
The Wire has reached out to the Sri Lankan High Commission for a response and will update the article once it is received.
The South Asian University had earlier stated in response to queries about Perara’s resignation that “no PhD proposal led to the resignation of a professor”.