Censorship – Academia

Professor Seema Panwar, the HOD of the political science department at Meerut College, submitted a written apology but said the paper she set did not have any out-of-syllabus questions.

While question number 87 asked what led to the rise of the RSS, with one of the choices suggesting it was due to religious and caste-based politics, one of the answers to question number 97 mentioned the RSS along with the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front and Naxalites.

The Chaudhary Charan Singh University (CCSU) in Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut has barred a political science professor at a prominent, government-funded college from examination and evaluation work for life after she allegedly set a question paper with two ‘objectionable’ questions related to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

Meerut College acted against Professor Seema Panwar, the head of its political science department, after the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), which is affiliated to the RSS, staged a protest over the paper at the CCSU campus on Saturday.

The controversy arose over a Political Science exam held on April 2 for second-year students. The paper had two multiple-choice questions (MCQs) linked to the RSS. While question number 87 asked what led to the rise of the RSS, with one of the choices suggesting it was due to religious and caste-based politics, one of the answers to question number 97 mentioned the RSS along with the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front and Naxalites.