New ministry rules set curbs on academic freedom online

In a move likely to affect academic freedom at India’s public sector higher education institutions, the government has now made it mandatory for academics and organisers to obtain prior clearance from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) to hold international webinars or online seminars on topics touching on India’s security and internal issues and on subjects the government believes are sensitive.

The revised guidelines were issued on 15 January by the Ministry of Education in consultation with MEA and came into immediate effect.

According to the guidelines, when giving permission to hold the online event, the government will ensure the subject matter is not related to the country’s Northeast States – considered sensitive due to a long history of insurgency – the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and the Ladakh region which saw clashes between Indian and Chinese troops in 2020.

Participants are expected not to broach issues related to India’s ‘internal matters’ or state security. MEA approval will be required if these specific issues are likely to be debated at the international conference, the guidelines say.

In addition, the names of all participants will have to be approved by the government in advance.

Alka Acharya, professor at the Centre for East Asian Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, and an expert on Chinese studies, said the new restrictions mean academics and research scholars would be under pressure not to raise subjects or issues which could be construed as affecting ‘national security’.

“Everything can potentially have implications for security and organisers will be under great pressure to also screen participants who are known to have critical positions,” she told University World News. “This will certainly have an impact on free and frank discussions.”

JNU’s Acharya said that, by and large, scholars were mindful not to compromise security, but at the same time they believe in having objective discussions which can help them understand problems.

“Fundamentally, that is the aim of a debate, but states and governments may think otherwise. So the overall impact will be largely of a dampening kind,” she said. “We will of course have to wait for further details to be issued.”

Nandini Sundar, professor in the department of sociology at the Delhi School of Economics, said the government guidelines were “more than ridiculous”.

“The restrictions have just come in, so it is too early to say what effect they will have, but the next logical step will be to require approval for us to log into international seminars,” she told University World News.

“It is not clear what ‘participation’ means: Will simply listening be called ‘participation’ or will the whip crack if someone from abroad intervenes or speaks?”

“Soon, no Indian academic will be allowed to log into a seminar or talk held elsewhere in the world without approval,” she said, adding via Twitter that “everything in the social sciences is ‘sensitive’ and touches on India’s ‘internal matters’.”

Restrictions on foreign researchers

During a November webinar on academic freedom in India organised by the United States-based organisation Scholars at Risk, Sundar said it was becoming harder for foreign research scholars to get research visas to India, and added: “For a long time at my university we have not been able to have any seminars on Kashmir or on Naxalism,” referring to banned Maoist insurgency groups in India.

Visas for participants in university-organised conferences from countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan and China have been subject to particular scrutiny for some time. However, participants denied a visa have in the past been able to participate via video link.

The government had already imposed restrictions on collaborations with Chinese institutions in 2019, requiring Ministry of Home Affairs and MEA approval for any activities, even under existing agreements. Academics noted at the time that short conferences and workshops involving the participation of Chinese academics had been monitored by MEA.

Collaborations with Chinese universities were ordered to be further drastically scaled down after military clashes with China in June 2020.

In October 2020 the Education Ministry floated a plan to make it mandatory for Indian universities to obtain prior permission before signing any memoranda of understanding or holding activities with educational institutions from countries that share a land border with India – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, China, Myanmar, Nepal and Pakistan.

Earlier guidelines required institutions to obtain authorisation for physical seminars, and that constraint has now been extended to webinars – in effect the only kind of events possible in a pandemic-hit world.

Virtual events can be easily supervised live and inspected afterwards. Online conferences have so far provided organisers greater freedom to invite foreign speakers but now the names of all participants in such webinars will need to be approved in advance by the government.

The guidelines are, however, silent on virtual events organised by private institutions and research organisations.

Academics said the latest restrictions on online conferences would hamper the growth of higher education in the country and curtail academic freedom as the guidelines also require MEA approval for events funded or sponsored from overseas, or involving foreign participation, or events that touch on sensitive presentations or subjects – political, scientific, technical, commercial or personal – with provisions for sharing data in any form.

Data security restrictions

Presentations by research scholars and academics could also come under greater scrutiny as the January guidelines also advise organisers to ensure full compliance with India’s existing IT data security provisions, personal data and protection of other sensitive information, and also exercise an “appropriate level of scrutiny to identify the nature and sensitivity of data” or contents of presentations and information to be shared by the Indian side.

The ministry also mandated “judicious selection” of IT apps, platforms or a medium for interaction. It said preference should be for apps having servers not controlled, hosted or owned by countries or agencies “hostile to India”, although the countries or agencies were not specified.

India last June banned dozens of Chinese apps in use in India on national security grounds, while the conferencing platform Zoom, widely used for online webinars has come under the spotlight for monitoring of China-related online meetings. It has also been known to channel user data via Chinese servers, although it is based in the US.

The MEA clearance will also be needed for participation of union or state ministers, constitutional functionaries and government officials, including scientists or doctors in online or virtual events.

“While state authorities have a right to protect national security, they must ensure that relevant legislation and its enforcement are consistent with national and international legal obligations to protect the rights to academic freedom, freedom of expression and freedom of association,” Scholars at Risk said in its most recent Free to Think 2020 report’s section on India, noting a surge in incidents of authorities clamping down on academic freedom in the past two years.

University World News Asia Editor Yojana Sharma contributed to this article.