Osmania University indefinitely defers Indian Science Congress over security concerns

Osmania University has indefinitely postponed the prestigious 105th Indian Science Congress (ISC) scheduled to be held from January 3-7, citing ‘security concerns’ based on intelligence inputs.

Speaking to TNM, OU registrar, Ch Gopal Reddy said, “We haven’t cancelled the event, we just deferred the dates. There’s going to be a meeting to be held in Kolkata by the Indian Science Congress Association on December 27. In that meeting, the fresh dates of the event will be decided.”

Reddy said, “I can’t disclose details of the reasons for the event being postponed, but we received intelligence reports, following which we had to postpone the event.”  

He also did not disclose if the event would be held in the varsity itself as planned earlier.

“Vice Chancellor of Osmania University has informed that they are not in a position to host 105th Indian Science Congress scheduled from 3-7 January, 2018 due to certain issues in the campus.” ISCA wrote on its website.

Earlier this month, the university witnessed unrest following the death of a first-year student, E Murali, who committed suicide in the university hostel. Several protesting students were arrested by police for stone pelting.

Of late, the ISC has been facing criticism from rationalists and scientists within the Congress, for promoting mythology and fiction in a science forum.

In 2015, a paper on Indian ancient aviation technology was presented at the Congress, which claimed that an ancient Indian godman by the name Maharishi Bharadwaj had detailed guidelines on how to build aircraft. The paper was presented by Captain Anand Bodas, a retired pilot and one of the two authors of the paper.

It was the first time in the history of ISC that the Congress had discussed such topics. Many faulted the BJP and the government at the Centre for veering from the traditional path of science to fiction.

Indian-born Noble Laureate Venkatraman Ramakrishnan in January 2016, had slammed the Congress, terming it a ‘circus’ where little science was discussed.