[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]More than 150 members of the academic community and contributors to the EPW have written an open letter to the directors of Sameeksha Trust, which brings out the journal Economic and Political Weekly (EPW), questioning their decision to remove an article on the Adani Group from the EPW website and impose restrictions on the editor. They have asked the trustees to make an effort to engage with the larger community on recent events and restore the independent nature of the journal, questioning their decision to cow down to corporate pressure.

On July 18, Economic and Political Weekly (EPW) editor Paranjoy Guha Thakurta resigned from his position after directors of the Sameeksha Trust ordered that he take down an article on the Adani Group. The Adani Group had written to the board and Guha Thakurta saying that the article was defamatory and threatened to take them to court.

Guha Thakurta has said that, in addition to asking that the article be taken down, the board told him he could no longer publish articles with his by-line in the journal and would have to work with a co-editor in the future.

The board members, in their statement, have not denied this or questioned the factual nature of the original articles. They said instead that Guha Thakurta had “exceeded his brief” by responding to the Adani Group’s letter on his own and initiating legal process on behalf of the Sameeksha Trust “without informing, let alone obtaining approval of, the Trust”.

The Sameeksha Trust’s actions upset the wider community of scholars who have been part of the ‘EPW community’ as readers and writers. Their letter to Sameeksha Trust directors and the list of signatories is reproduced below:

Open letter to the board members of the Sameeksha Trust

As long-standing well-wishers and members of the intellectual community served by the EPW, we are appalled and dismayed by the recent events leading to the abrupt resignation of the editor, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta.

We are distressed that the board of the Sameeksha Trust has insisted that the editor retract an article published in the journal, and is preparing to introduce new norms for the board-editor relationship and appoint a co-editor. It is obvious that, taken together, these actions (mentioned by the editor in interviews to the press and not denied in the statement issued by the trust) would force any self-respecting editor to resign. By failing to distinguish between internal issues of procedural propriety in the board-editor relationship from the much larger question of the EPW’s public reputation for integrity, the board of the Sameeksha Trust has dealt a strong blow to the journal’s credibility.

Paranjoy Guha Thakurta’s professional reputation has been primarily that of an investigative journalist of several decades standing. His well-known past exposés have delved into the malpractices of large corporations and the frequent complicity of state institutions in such corrupt practices. That such journalism could provoke retaliation by those investigated may be expected. These facts must have been known to the board of trustees of the Sameeksha Trust when they appointed Guha Thakurta as editor just 15 months earlier. It is one thing to wonder if the editor may have erred in initiating legal action on behalf of the Trust without first consulting its board, and quite another to withdraw an already published article from the journal. If the board believes the article to be mistaken in its facts, it must issue a public apology and retraction.  If it is only concerned that due deference was not shown to the board, it must publicly stand by the article. By forcing the editor’s resignation without clarifying its stand on the substance of the article, the board has diminished the institution that it is mandated to nurture.

The fact that a legal notice was sent to the editor and the publishers (Sameeksha Trust) of EPW, for an ongoing investigation on the tweaking of rules that have benefited the Adani Group, is not surprising. Legal notices have unfortunately become the standard means used to intimidate and suppress investigative journalism. When they translate into court cases that can extend over years, they obviously add to costs and further harassment of honest journalists. However, as long as all the published material can be adequately substantiated and verified, there is little reason to fear an adverse result from the judicial process. But publishers MUST stand behind and back their editors on this if the journals are to maintain their independence and credibility.

India is currently living through a dark period in which there are real concerns about freedom and independence of intellectual expression, both for academics and journalists, with significant corporate takeover of major media houses and increasing instances of overt and covert intimidation of independent thinking and debate. In this context, reports of what appears to be a capitulation by the board of trustees of Sameeksha Trust –  removing the “offending” article from the EPW website and trying to impose humiliating terms on the editor – are alarming. The EPW has a long and distinguished tradition of promoting independent and critical thinking that is vital in a democracy. We expect the current trustees to be mindful of our inherited legacy that they hold in trust on behalf of us as scholars, analysts and activists in India and abroad, who have contributed to EPW over long decades. They need to take immediate steps to restore the prestige and credibility of the journal and the Sameeksha Trust. This letter is therefore also asking the Trust, which (regardless of its purely legal status) is in the nature of a body accountable to a larger public, to create channels of communication between the Trust and the EPW community so as to strengthen the autonomy and integrity of EPW.

1. AR Vasavi, Independent researcher Bangalore
2. Aabid Firdausi, Kerala University
3. Abdi Seido, Dire Dawa University, Ethiopia
4. Abhijit Banerjee, Professor, MIT
5. Abhijit Sen, Retired Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
6. Aditya Nigam, Professor, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies
7. Akeel Bilgrami, Sidney Morgenbesser Professor of Philosophy, Columbia University
8. Alicia Puyana Mutis, Professor, Flacso, Mexico City
9. Amar Yumnam, Professor, Manipur University, India.
10. Amita Baviskar, Professor, Institute of Economic Growth
11. Amiya Kumar Bagchi, Emeritus Professor, Institute of Development Studies, Kolkata
12. Anamitra Roychowdhury, JNU
13. Anand Chakravarti, Retired Professor, University of Delhi
14. Anandhi S., Professor, MIDS Chennai
15. Andrew Cornford, Geneva Finance Observatory
16. Anis Chowdhury, Professor, University of Western Sydney
17. Anupam Mitra
18. Arindam Sen, Editor, Liberation, Kolkata
19. Ashish Rajadhyaksha, Independent researcher, Bangalore
20. Ashok Chowdhury, All India Union of Forest Working People
21. Ashwini Deshpande, Professor, Delhi School of Economics
22. Avinash Kumar, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
23. Avnesh Kumar Gupta, World Forum of Economists
24. Balwinder Singh Tiwana, Punjabi University
25. Bina Agarwal, Professor, University of Manchester
26. Bindu Oberoi, Indraprastha College for Women, Delhi University
27. CP Chandrasekhar, Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University
28. Carol Upadhya, NIAS Bangalore
29. Chandra Dutt, Director, COSTFORD, Kerala
30. Collins Mtika, Director – Centre for Investigative Journalism – Malawi
31. Dhruva Narayan, Centre for Social Development
32. Dia Dacosta, University of Alberta
33. Dipa Sinha, BR Ambedkar University, Delhi
34. EAS Sarma, IAS Retd, Hyderabad
35. Eleuterio Prado, Professor, São Paulo University, Brazil
36. Farah Naqvi, Writer and activist, Delhi
37. Geeta Kapur, Art scholar, Delhi
38. Gita Chadha, University of Mumbai
39. Gopi Kanta Ghosh, Independent researcher
40. Hemant Adlakha, Jawaharlal Nehru University
41. Himanshu, Jawaharlal Nehru University
42. Itty Abraham, National University of Singapore
43. J Devika, Centre for Development Studies, Kerala
44. J George, (Rtd) Independent Researcher, DELHI
45. Jai Sen, World Social Forum
46. Janaki Abraham, Delhi School of Economics
47. Janaki Nair, Jawaharlal Nehru University
48. Jayati Ghosh, Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University
49. Jeemol Unni, University of Ahmedabad
50. Jesim Pais, Society for Social and Economic Research
51. Jomo Kwame Sundaram, Malaysia
52. Joseph MT, University of Mumbai
53. K Ramakrishnan, Chennai
54. K Srivatsan, Anveshi Research Centre Hyderabad
55. Kalpana Kannabiran, Council for Social Development, Hyderabad
56. Kalyan Shankar Ray, Bhubaneswar
57. Kannan Srinivasan, New York
58. Kunibert Raffer, retired Professor, University of Vienna
59. Kushankur Dey, Xavier University Bhubaneswar
60. Kuttappan Vijayachandran, Industrial Research Services
61. Lata Mani, Bangalore
62. Laurence Cox, National University of Ireland and Fondation des Sciences des Hommes Paris
63. Lawrence Shute, Prof Emeritus, California State Polytechnic University
64. Laxmi Murthy, Bengaluru
65. M Vijayabaskar, Professor, Madras Institute of Development Studies
66. MS Bhatt, retired Professor, Jamia Millia Islamia
67. MV Ramana, Professor, University of British Columbia, Canada
68. Malancha Chakrabarty, Observer Research Foundation
69. Mandeep Kaur, Dyal Singh College
70. Mandira Sarma, Jawaharlal Nehru University
71. Mani Kumar, Independent researcher
72. Manoranjan Mohanty, retired Professor, Delhi University
73. Mary E John, Professor, CWDS, New Delhi
74. Martha Nussbaum, University of Chicago
75. Matt Meyer, International Peace Research Association
76. Meyer Brownstone, Professor Emeritus, University of Toronto
77. Mohammad Konneh
78. Mritunjoy Mohanty, Professor, IIM, Kolkata
79. Mustafa Ozer, Anadolu University, Turkey
80. N Krishnaji, retired, Centre for Development Studies
81. N Mani, Erode College, Kerala
82. Nandini Sundar, Professor, University of Delhi
83. Navnita Behera, IRIIS
84. Nayanjyoti, Research Scholar, Delhi University
85. Nirmalangshu Mukherji, Professor, Delhi University
86. Nivedita Menon, Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
87. Noam Chomsky, Professor, MIT
88. Oishik Sirkar, Jindal Law University, Sonepat
89. Padmini Swaminathan, retired Professor, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Hyderabad
90. Paris Yeros, Professor, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
91. Partha Chatterjee, Professor, Columbia University
92. Partha Ray, IIM Calcutta
93. Patrick Bond, Professor, University of Witwatersrand, South Africa
94. Prabhu Mohapatra, University of Delhi
95. Pradip Kumar Datta, JNU
96. Pranab Bardhan, University of California Berkeley
97. Praveen Jha, Professor, JNU
98. Prem Chowdhry, Historian
99. Pushpendra, Professor Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Patna
100. R Nagaraj, IGIDR
101. R Ramakumar, Professor, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai
102. R Srivatsan, Anveshi Research Centre for Women’s Studies
103. Radha D’Souza, University of Westminster
104. Radhika Desai, Professor, University College, Manitoba
105. Radhika Singha, Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University
106. Rajarshi Dasgupta, Journalist, Kolkata
107. Rajender Singh Negi
108. Rajni Palriwala, University of Delhi
109. Rama Melkote, retired Professor, Osmania University
110. Ramchandra Guha, Bengaluru
111. Ranjini Mazumdar, Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
112. Ravi K Tripathi, Université Pairs XIII – Sorbonne Paris
113. Ravi Sundaram, CSDS, Delhi
114. Rohit Azad, Jawaharlal Nehru University
115. Rosa Abraham, Institute of Social and Economic Change, Bengaluru
116. S Parasuraman, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai
117. SV Narayanan, Independent Analyst
118. Sabyasachi Bhattacharya, Professor Emeritus, JNU
119. Sakuntala Narasimhan, Independent scholar
120. Samuel H Daniel, Independent researcher USA
121. Sanjay Srivastava, Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi
122. Sashi Kumar, Chairman, Media Development Foundation, Chennai
123. Satish Deshpande, Professor, Delhi University
124. Seth Sandrowsky, Sacramento, California
125. Shambhu Ghatak, Associate Fellow, Inclusive Media for Change
126. Shipra Nigam, Research Scholar
127. SK Godwin, SK, IIM Kolkata
128. Sudeshna Banerji, Jadavpur University
129. Sudip Chaudhuri, Professor IIM Kolkata
130. Sumit Mazumdar, Institute of Public Health, Kalyani
131. Sumit Sarkar, retired Professor, University of Delhi
132. Sunanda Sen, retired Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University
133. Suneetha Achyuta, Coordinator, Anveshi Research Centre for Women’s Studies
134. Sunil Khilnani, Professor, King’s College London
135. Sunil Mani, Director, CDS Trivandrum
136. Surajit C Mukhopadhyay, Seacom Skills University
137. Sushil Khanna, Professor, IIM, Kolkata
138. Susie Tharu, Professor Emerita, English and Foreign Languages University Swati Pillai, Watershed Organisation Trust Pune
139. T M Thomas Isaac, Finance Minister, Government of Kerala
140. Tanika Sarkar, retired Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
141. Tejaswini Niranjana, Professor, Lingnan University, Hongkong
142. Uma Chakravarti, retired historian, Delhi University
143. Uma M Bhrugabanda, EFLU Hyderabad
144. Uma Maheswari Bhrugubanda, EFL University
145. V Geetha, Independent scholar, Chennai
146. Veena Naregal, Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi University
147. Veena Shatrugna, retired, National Institute of Nutrition Hyderabad
148. Venkatesh Athreya, Professor of Economics (Retired), Bharathidasan University
149. Vikas Rawal, Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University
150. Vipin Negi, University of Delhi
151. Vishal Sarin, LP University
152. Vivan Sundaram, Artist, Delhi
153. Yılmaz Akyüz, Chief Economist, South Centre (Former director, UNCTAD)
154. Zoya Hasan, Professor Emerita, Jawaharlal Nehru University

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