Government institutions can hold virtual conferen­ces on subjects touching on In­dia’s security and internal ma­tters, including topics related to the country’s borders, No­rtheast or Jammu and Ka­shm­ir, only with the government’s approval fr­om now on.

So say the education mini­s­try’s revised guidelines of January 15 for “online/ virtual ­conferences/ seminars/ tra­i­n­i­ng, etc”, which have spa­r­ked concern in academia abo­ut the future of research and free online debate on subjects the go­vernment considers sensitive.

Several academics suggested these guidelines would affect research in certain subjects and prompt speakers at webinars to be guarded at the cost of frank discussion.

One part of the guidelines that has caused particular concern mandates, apparently in the context of webinars with foreign participation, “appropriate level of scrutiny to identify the nature and sensitivity of data or content of the presentations or the information to be shared by an Indian delegation”.

It doesn’t clarify who will do the scrutiny — the government or the organiser — the vagueness adding to the academics’ unease.

“Research scholars make presentations at national and international seminars. In ma­ny areas now, they will face co­nstraints in making their presentations because of the sc­rutiny,” said Nandita Nara­in, a teacher at St Stephen’s College. “The speakers will prefer to self-censor themselves. The quality of research in many areas and that of debate will be affected.”

She said that earlier guidelines required institutions to take permission for physical seminars, and that requirement has now been extended to virtual conferences, practically the only kind of confere­nces possible in a pandemic hit world.

Academics said it was not possible for the government to have people attending or rec­ording all physical conferenc­es, so the regulations had lesser bite. Virtual conferences,
ho­wever, can be easily monitored live and again scrutinised later.

The guidelines say that all ministries and departments, public sector undertakings, central educational institutions, public-funded universities and organisations owned and controlled by central, state and Union Territory governments must seek approval of the administrative secretary concerned — for the event as well as the list of partici¬
pants. But the guidelines are silent on virtual conferences held by private universities, think tanks or research organisations.

“This will also make it difficult to invite speakers,” Narain said, alluding to the possibility of the guidelines putting off some potential participants or government officials scuttling invites to particular speakers.

While physical conferences had their own constraints when it came to inviting foreign speakers, webinars had so far offered a huge freedom in this respect.

“While giving permission, the ministry should ensure that the subject matter for online events is not related to security of State, border, northeast states, UT of J&K, Ladakh or any other issues which are clearly/ purely related to India’s internal matter/s,” the guidelines say.

They advise the organisers to be judicious in their choice of infotech applications, platforms and mediums of interaction: “Preference should be given to those apps having servers not controlled/ hosted/ owned by countries/ agencies hostile to India.”

The guidelines make the foreign ministry’s clearance compulsory for events having foreign funding, sponsorship or participation as well as those involving “sensitive” subjects — political, scientific, technical, commercial, or personal — with provisions for sharing data in any form.

While seeking approval or after obtaining approval, the link of the online event should be shared with the foreign ministry. Care should be taken to ensure that India’s “map, flag, emblem, etc, are correct and rightly displayed”.

Foreign ministry clearance will be required also for “Union/ state ministers, constitutional functionaries and government officials/ scientists/ doctors, etc, of the rank of JS (joint secretary) and above in online/ virtual/ physical international conferences/ seminars/ training, etc”.