Censorship – Academia

Veteran actor Naseeruddin Shah has claimed he was disinvited from a Mumbai University event at the last minute, without explanation or apology. In his opinion piece for The Indian Express on Thursday, Naseeruddin called the experience both insulting and disappointing, adding that he had been looking forward to interacting with students.

Naseeruddin added that he was keen to attend the event, organised by the university’s Urdu department, on February 1. But he was informed late on the night of January 31 that he did not need to come.

“The Jashn-e-Urdu organised by the Urdu department of Mumbai University for February 1, from which I was disinvited at the last moment, was an event I was greatly looking forward to because it meant interacting with students. The university, after informing me that I needn’t attend (on the night of January 31, and giving no reason for it, forget an apology) obviously considered this not insulting enough. So they decided to rub a little salt in by announcing to the audience that I had refused to be there,” he wrote.