In a shocking incident, Gilbert Sebastian, an assistant professor in the Department of International Relations and Politics at the Central University of Kerala called India a fascist country after the BJP’s victory in 2014. He made this comment while taking an online class on ‘Fascism and Nazism’ for the first semester students. “The RSS and its affiliate organisation, together called as the Sangh Parivar meaning the Sangh family (including the BJP) in India can also be considered proto-fascist,” he said in one of the PowerPoint slides.
The incident happened on 19th April during a one-hour lecture session for the paper titled ‘Theories and Concepts of Political Science’. The students who attended the class themselves revealed to the public the controversial comments made by Gilbert Sebastian.
In one of the slides titled ‘Other fascists and proto-fascist States’, the assistant professor added ‘India under Narendra Modi (2014-..)’. Without hiding his hate for the BJP government, he further commented that, “in India, what we are witnessing today may be characterised as ‘fascistic communalism’. Communalism being its essence and being fascistic its adjective. It is possible that over time ‘fascistic communalism’ could develop into ‘communal fascism’ with fascism being its essence and geing communal its attribute.”
In a letter to vice-chancellor Prof H Venkateshwarlu, the ABVP’s CUK unit said “no serious studies or research have identified India as a fascist country. Only certain anti-national elements are trying to label India as a fascist country”. The ABVP said it would launch mass protests if the vice-chancellor did not take action against him.
This is not the first time that educational institutions are being used for propagating lies and spreading anti-national thoughts. After strong protest by ABVP, CUK VC has informed the media that he a committee of senior professor would be constituted to investigate the matter.
