On April 28, 2020, Khabri Baba published a report headlined ‘International Students Worried as South Asian University Pushes Them to Go Home‘. The piece, reported by Sukanya Shantha, chronicled the anxieties, humiliation and uncertainty faced by the SAU’s students with the lockdown.
The University has written to Khabri Baba, denying the contents of the report. Its response and the reporter’s response, along with those of SAU alumni are given below.
SAU’s response
Dear Editor,
Apropos news story published on your portal on 28 April, 2020, titled International Students Worried as South Asian University Pushes Them to Go Home, [the] title of the story is as incorrect (even malicious) as the contents of this news item.
The South Asian University (SAU) has NOT pushed students to go home. We can do no better than forward the attached letter to you from an Afghan student on the appropriateness of decisions taken by the SAU over the past few weeks [Editor: The Afghan student’s experience has been added to Khabri Baba’s original story], and suggestive of the value attached by students to the timely assistance from the University in these trying and testing times to all its students.
Several crucial aspects of the story have deviated from facts and ground realities; some even infringe on the privacy of individuals referred to in the story, and border on defamation. This has not only tarnished the images of the students and officials, who are both misquoted, and misunderstood, of the University, but that of India as well, as the Host Country of this international University in front of your international audience.
Taking cue of Khabri Baba’s story, papers in the region have begun to come out with stories of their own, with subject matter ranging from “fake” medical certificates issued by SAU (Bangladesh) since your reporter challenged its authenticity in her article, to incorrect figures on air tickets being four to five times higher (“The News”, Pakistan, April 30, 2020), at a time when the Afghan student’s clarification sent to you states that this is incorrect!
Here are a few other among several points we wish to bring to your personal and urgent attention, and urging immediate necessary action at your end:
– Post Covid-19 lockdowns globally, we are all going through unprecedented and extraordinary times. Even before lockdown, we have NEVER forced students, far less “push them” to their homes. All our Notices (available on our website sau.in) clearly attest to this, and take into account the sensitivity and evolving nature of the situation SAU kept finding itself in.
All actions were fully in line with steps taken by other educational institutions based in NCR of Delhi, the national capital of India, on the basis of instructions from concerned Ministries. We encouraged all students to arrange their travel, much before the lockdown came into force, to consider leaving for home as we felt there couldn’t be a better and safer place than home during such times. Besides, their summer vacations that have started and go on for over three months until further Notification, with their classes (and exams) paused for now.
We have not announced the date of closure either of the hostel, or of the mess/canteen. Over half of the 400+ hostel students have left for their homes, including many Indian students, and several students from SAARC countries.
– Students were informed (April 22, 2020) that SAU is in constant touch with the concerned High Commissions/Embassies, and has shared with them the list of students staying in the hostel, should they have a plan for an evacuation of their nationals from India along lines of two other countries.
Details of chartered flights available with the SAU were shared with the students, and several students purchased their air tickets, as per specific advise from their respective embassies on tickets NOT being purchased by them for the students. SAU did not force any of its students to buy air tickets for their journeys.In its notice, the opening sentence read: “The SAU reaffirms that the safety of the hostel residents is our utmost priority; we are pro-actively working for ensuring this.” The SAU, in fact, was happy to join hands with the Afghanistan and Bangladesh Missions in New Delhi in obtaining early approvals for the students travel permissions sought, by also interceding with the MEA in the context of SAU students being among those for whom Movement Passes were being requested for.
– Your reporter, not unsurprisingly, was very selective in her choice of students whose views she would focus on in being able to come out with an eyebrow-raising story – perhaps Bollywood-style – sensationalising trivia, and not mentioning a sentence on students who have since safely reached home, and are reunited with their families.Contact details of those students were also provided to your reporter, just as SAU provided contact particulars of students eventually contacted by her. Incorporating those students’ words of gratitude to the university and its officials who worked tirelessly to ensure their safe passage would, the reporter erroneously concluded, contradict the narrative she chose even before writing her piece, and is worthy of condemnation. As stated earlier, the student’s version is also attached herewith, and bears testimony to facts stated in this message.
– Alarmist reporting on cost of air tickets, and distortion of fact on advance payment of scholarships:As also mentioned in the opening paragraph of this message, the letter to Khabri Baba from the Afghan student clearly establishes that the cost of the tickets were not four or five fold as reported in your story.
Given the extraordinary/emergency situation, on the basis of requests received to this effect, and on specific recommendations of the Deans’Committee, one months’ advance stipend for May 2020 was disbursed to students to ameliorate their financial difficulties, and against future adjustments of the amounts paid. The SAU Deans’ Committee was consulted in this.
The factually inaccurate assertion of your daily on the “exorbitant” cost of air tickets – four to five times higher than normal – was picked up, mutatis mutandis, by The News daily of Pakistan today, May 1, 2020, and by Naya Diganta in Bangladesh.
– SAU Medical Certificate:
The ‘Covid-19 Symptoms Free Medical Certificate’ (name itself suggests what it is) referred in Khabri Baba story was issued to students on their request, and after a copy of the air ticket was submitted by students as proof of travel.The medical certificate states that on the date of issue the
(i) student is “COVID-19 Symptoms Free” and
(ii) that student was confined to the SAU campus which was free from any infection of COVID-19 since March 18, 2020.
This was after examination of the student by the Medical Officer of SAU, a Registered Medical Practitioner. Your reporter questioned the propriety of this, while being completely ignorant of any of the issues involved, or being aware of fact that all relevant international and GoI Guidelines/Protocols were duly being adhered to (guidelines for the illnesses requiring quarantine as stated by the International Health Regulations of the WHO, and ICMR stipulations in April 2020).
Again, picking up on this aspect from your story, a Bangla daily then stretched it a little further to claim that “fake”certificates were being issued by SAU!
The University then clarified that this was not the case, and that SAU’s certificates are not certifying “COVID-19 negative” or “COVID-19 free” cases, were merely attesting COVID-19 symptoms free individuals, and on the basis of the students effective quarantining in the SAU campus since March 18, 2020.
It will therefore be seen that Khabri Baba story by Ms. Sukanya has damaged the University’s reputation immeasurably, riding on assumed “I know” notions rather than relying on WHO/ICMR Guidelines on the subject, that form the basis of the Certificate’s issuance.
– Illegal, and unethical, use of a lady student’s medical and other information personal to her:
The reporter using the medical certificate issued to a certain Bangladeshi lady student as a part of her story is completely unacceptable. The medical certificate (helpfully) attached to the story had the student’s handwriting on it, and a copy of it was collected from someone other than the student herself, without even informing the student that this was done!
Only the student in question had the right to pass on her medical information to a third person. Using the personal medical document without her express consent has rightly hurt the concerned student who has since complained against this, both to SAU, and to you in a message sent by her.
– Fear of sexual assault mentioned by the Bangladeshi student:
The student’s return journey to her home in Chittagong from Dhaka is also reported upon in the story, needlessly sensationalising the matter to wrongfully justify her narrative. The student averred to SAU that there was no fear of physical or sexual assault to her ever mentioned to anyone. There was no sensitivity in reporting the fact that she was on Bangladeshi soil, and it was there that the car ferrying her had a breakdown.
This was reported by the reporter without even having a one-on-one interaction with the student, even if to check whether she wished to to share her ‘experience’. We have been copied a message sent by the student to you, which says that she felt “cheated and deceived”, and that the entire episode was inappropriately represented in the whole article. We believe that an unconditional apology from your reporter/your portal to the student will be in order, and is due.
– SAU students from Bhutan, evacuated to Thimphu during the lockdown, reported no cases of problems encountered. No student complained that he/she was forced either by the SAU, or their government, to go home. But this was not “newsworthy” to Khabri Baba for this report.
We would like to reiterate the fact that your story tarnishes the image of India as the Host Country of this International University by publishing a piece not based on facts, by putting in extra effort consciously to conceal important facts, based on assumptions that are patently wrong, and on incomplete information. This is very unfortunate and something not expected from an esteemed news portal of which you, a seasoned journalist, are the Chief Editor, sir.
We urge you to weigh your story again in the face of the above facts, and seriously consider taking it down from your web pages, with an apology to the individuals concerned. The fact that the erroneous story has been removed may please be clarified on your website so that more stories of the type that have appeared in Bangladesh and Pakistan do not appear, with or without referring to your story. It is with some difficulty that we pre-empted a similar story appearing in the Kathmandu Post, and hence the urgency.
Sukanya Shantha responds:
The report titled ‘International Students Worried as South Asian University Pushes Them to Go Home’ is based on interviews of 13 students, all belonging to different nationalities and pursuing different programmes at the South Asian University, along with a letter sent by more than 100 students to (acting) SAU president, A.V.S. Ramesh Chandra, on April 22.
Khabri Baba had also spoken to the university administration, and accessed several other internal conversations between the students and the university officials before publishing its report.
The students, barring a few from Bhutan (whose versions have been reported in the story, contrary to the claims made by SAU), had expressed their anxiety and worry over returning to their homeland amid the ongoing lockdown and the global pandemic.
Letter to President- SAU St… by Khabri Baba on Scribd
Khabri Baba has also accessed all notices pertaining to COVID- 19 that were issued by the university from the second week of March, and several WhatsApp messages sent out by the two wardens of the university to the students. While the university issued several notices, it did not make concerted efforts to vacate both indian and foreign students before the lockdown.
Only notices with vague intimations of evacuation and vacating were constantly sent to students via e-mail.
We have also relied heavily on the students’ interviews and their verbal communication with the hostel wardens asking them to leave the hostel while piecing this report together.
In a telephone conversation with me on April 27, SAU president Chandra admitted to having “encouraged students left, right and centre to leave.” The audio recording of this conversation is available with me. And even as the university continues to rubbish students’ worries, some university students have already taken to Twitter to seek help from their country representatives.
In their rejoinder, the SAU authorities claim that my report doesn’t cover the stories of students who were happy to be back home. This is factually incorrect.
I had spoken to a few students from Bhutan and their (happy) experiences have been captured in the published story. The Bhutanese students were happy being back home and had praised their government for the help extended.
Just because I chose to independently approach students and not get influenced by the administration, the university cannot dismiss the efforts that were put in and claim that we have “Bollywood-ised” and “sensationalised” a trivial issue. Also, students’ concerns, even if they are one or hundred, shouldn’t be termed as “trivial”.
SAU is an international university established by the eight-member nations of South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC) and is expected to act responsibly in ensuring all its students felt safe in India. By not responding to the letter written by over 100 students to the acting president almost a week before the article was published, the university is surely not in a position to accuse others of acting irresponsibly.
Dear, ambassador we are the students of south asian university, Chankyapuri, still waiting for your help. our university continuously asked us to leave. they also informed you, but you told that ministry is informed, we are still waiting for help. it is very hard for us. plz hlp
— Mujeebur Rahman (@Mujeebur789) April 28, 2020
Khabri Baba had spoken to several students who were on their way back or who are weighing their options of returning to their home country. The students were particularly concerned about the high prices they have to pay for the tickets right now.
For instance, a student who paid not more than Rs 7,000 to 10,000 on normal days for his air ticket from Delhi to Colombo, Sri Lanka, was told he will have to pay $500 or approximately Rs. 37,915, which is indeed four to five times the normal price. Even flight tickets to Bangladesh are currently priced at Rs 22,000, which is nearly three times the usual fare.
The students Khabri Baba spoke to said that the university’s decision to release two months’ stipend to PhD students in advance and scholarship to MA students did not really alleviate their problems. This money, they said, was meant for funding their PhD projects and also served as the sole source of income for many full-time scholars. Several MA students told Khabri Baba that the modest sum paid to them (ranging between Rs 5,000 to Rs 7,000) as scholarship was nowhere enough to buy them a ticket.
Coming to the medical certificate that was issued to students travelling back home. The certificate, a photograph of which was used in the article, states that the students travelling back home are “Covid-19 symptoms free”. When Khabri Baba had contacted medical officer Dr. Priyadarshini K.D.K. to understand the issue better, she said that she was merely following a World Health Organisation (WHO) guideline of 2005 for “Illnesses requiring quarantine as stated by the International Sanitary Regulation of the World Health Organisation, signed in Geneva”. The medical officer, and later SAU acting president Chandra too had confirmed that the students were not tested for coronavirus infection.
When it is amply clear that more than 80% of the COVID- 19 cases are asymptomatic, issuance of such a letter (on the basis of a guideline issued 15 years ago) is not just unscientific but arguably an irresponsible act on the part of the university.
According to the notice issued on April 22 by the Dean of Students, the certificate was issued to the students to avoid getting detained at the quarantine facilities back home. Without conducting adequate tests, and by issuing such certificate, the university has not only jeopardising students’ healths, but also of those in their home country.
In addition to this, one of your university wardens has clearly admitted in an internal WhatsApp conversation that several housekeeping staff have to regularly visit “crowded mandis” and that there is so little one could do to control the environment in the university. So, it is really for the university to explain how they decided to issue an unscientific letter even when the university was fully aware the space was porous and not safe enough.
In the course of our reporting, we had also accessed these medical ‘certificates’ and published one of them along with the article. Every information pertaining to the student’s identity, nationality and date of issuance was concealed. There is no question of violating anyone’s confidentiality.
Having said that, since this letter is a public document issued to anyone willing to travel to their home country, reporting on it is nowhere “illegal” or “unethical”.
The story also mentions the experience of a female student who travelled to Bangladesh and was stranded on her way from Dhaka to Chittagong. This incident was first narrated to me by two of her friends, both fellow Bangladeshis. The female student and her sister had travelled in their private car and when their car broke down, they were stranded on the road for several hours. According to these students, the female student had spent several hours fearing physical and sexual assault.
After speaking to her friends, Khabri Baba had contacted one of the hostel wardens, who further corroborated a part of the story. In this conversation, the warden mentioned that the student was not able to access the highway leading to Chittagong but had to take one of the side lanes and that the student’s car broke down. The warden had also mentioned that the student had left for her home country without informing her and that if she were kept in the loop, she would have ensured a safe passage for the student back home. The recording of this conversation too is available with Khabri Baba. Moreover, Khabri Baba has been careful not to reveal the identity of the student.
Even as I respond to this rejoinder, the students of SAU still await a response to their letter written to acting university president Chandra on April 22. Instead of spending effort criticising a story based on the experiences and inputs of multiple students and calling it “fake news”, the university should have addressed its students’ concerns. Had they done so, this news report would not have had to be written in the first place.
A letter from alumni:
An Open Letter from Alumni to South Asian University, New Delhi
Date: 2 May 2020
In present times when the world is fighting against COVID-19 pandemic, we look back to our alma mater, South Asian University, in great hope. As alumni of the university, we have experienced and contributed to cutting-edge research in the fields of sciences and social sciences.
We have one of the best laboratories in South Asian region to conduct research in Life Sciences and Biotechnology, and look forward to best possible biological and medical guidance and solutions from its faculty and researchers.
We also look forward to our university to lead in terms of regional cooperation among eight constituent South Asian countries and to promote regional solidarity and unity, as we have lived with these ideals while living together as students in the campus.
However, recent conduct of the university administration has disappointed us and defeated all our above hopes. In a notice dated 22 April 2020 by the Dean of Students, the university administration has pushed students to leave the campus and travel to their respective homes across several countries in these times of global travel restrictions and crisis. This is not just foolish but also a criminal act of jeopardising students’ health and safety.
This lazy attitude towards students is risking their lives. If South Asian University represents regional solidarity, this one act will jeapordise the entire project. These recent developments are no more a secretive internal matter of the university, but have been reported by media as well.
We, the alumni, thus put our last hope that the university administration will take its responsibilities seriously by providing a safe home to all existing students in the campus itself. If the university administration continues to push its students off the cliff, it will not only irreparably tarnish the image of the university but also ruin all our memorable experiences and sense of belonging we associate with our alma mater.
Alumni
South Asian University, New Delhi
This open letter has been jointly written and endorsed by nearly 20 concerned alumni of the university from across South Asian region, including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan.