Mumbai: A two-day lecture series in Pune’s Modern College to celebrate the 150th birth anniversary of M.K. Gandhi has abruptly dropped Gandhi’s great-grandson Tushar Gandhi from the speakers’ list after a splinter right-wing group, Patit Pavan Sanghathana (PPS), allegedly threatened the college authorities with “dire consequences”. Gandhi was one of the guests invited to deliver the inaugural lecture at the conference, which was titled ‘Revisiting Gandhi’.

The college is run by Progressive Education Society and interestingly the society’s chairman Dr Gajanan Ekbote is an elder brother of Hindu Brahmin leader Milind Ekbote, one of the prime accused in the Bhima Koregaon violence case. While Gandhi said that he was informed about PPS’s objection, Dr Ekbote denied their role.

“Some students’ organisation on the campus raised objection to having Tushar Gandhi as a guest. We were shown clips where Gandhi can be seen speaking against (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi, (home minister) Amit Shah and (former Maharashtra chief minister) Devendra Fadnavis. It would not have been appropriate to use the funds received from Pune University to speak on a contentious political matter. We have students of different age groups and we need to be careful what we allow on our campus,” Ekbote claimed.

Ekbote further added that the lecture series has commenced today as per the schedule and that they would invite Gandhi a week later.

Speaking to The Wire, Tushar Gandhi said the event was supposed to be an elaborate deliberation on Gandhian thoughts and he was invited a few weeks ago by the school administration. Along with Gandhi, several other speakers were to speak at the conference. They included: the secretary of Maharashtra Gandhi Smarak Nidhi, Rajan Anwar; associate professor of the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Chaitra Redkar; head of the sociology department of Savitribai Phule Pune University, Shruti Tambe. Several academics were also lined up to present papers on Gandhian philosophy.

Days after the invitation was extended, Gandhi says, the school’s authorities contacted him and asked him to keep his lecture apolitical. “I don’t know how can they organise a lecture series around Gandhian philosophy and also expect it to be kept apolitical. But I had told the college (authorities) that I know what to speak and I don’t need tutoring from them,” Gandhi said. He further added that he suspected the college would try to tone police him and not allow him to speak his mind.

On February 6, a day before the event was to commence, one of the college authorities made another call and informed Gandhi that the lecture was being cancelled. “No reasons were given for this decision. The professor who talked to me over the phone blamed it on the school administration and did not divulge more,” Gandhi adds. It was only when Gandhi contacted other speakers and asked if they were also informed about the abrupt cancellation that he found out the involvement of this right-wing group.

Gandhi says he was aware of the college’s “right-wing inclination” and still decided to accept the invitation because he considered this as an opportunity to “engage”. “I was informed by Anwar Rajan (another speaker at the conference) about the ideology of the management but that only made my resolve to go there and speak my mind that much firmer,” Gandhi told The Wire.

The two-day lecture series was organised with the UGC’s approval, as a part of activities that colleges are expected to organise.

Patit Pavan Sanghathana, the right-wing group, was in the news recently for forcing Pune’s Fergusson college to cancel a lecture by retired judge B.G. Kolse-Patil. The fringe right-wing organisation has also been accused of violence and vandalism in the past in Pune. The Wire tried to get in touch with PPS members but could not get through.

Reacting to the cancellation of the lecture, state cabinet minister for housing Jitendra Awhad said, “Not allowing Tushar Gandhi speak at Modern College on Mahatma Gandhi on his 150th birth anniversary because some Gandhi haters objected and threatened is ridiculous and should be condemned. Pune police should not have allowed this to happen. It is unfortunate.” He further tweeted that he has already voiced his concern to the state home minister Anil Deshmukh.

I just spoke to Honourable Home Minister Anil Deshmukh and told my concern over this he has promised action and he will talk to #TusharGandhi https://t.co/dPq1hww9ac — Dr.Jitendra Awhad (@Awhadspeaks) February 7, 2020

Note: This article has been updated after speaking to the college authorities.