Plan to invoke gods in India's top journalism institute

The seminar is being organised by a publication called Media Scan. T

The Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) is an autonomous body based in New Delhi. It is funded by the government and comes under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
Till recently, the IIMC had a certain reputation for training graduates and post graduates in journalism and related disciplines. It was set up in 1965. In all these decades, a yagna (a symbolic sacrificial rite to please the gods) has never been part of the proceedings.
This Saturday, that might change. A yagna will precede a seminar on National Journalism. This has caused amusement in some circles, while in others, apprehension and admiration.
Amusement among cynics, as they believe it is in keeping with the appointment of KG Suresh who has taken charge a couple of years ago, and who is known to have right wing leanings. Apprehension among the liberals, and admiration in the moral majority, who believe in invoking the gods before any act.
Former teachers said they couldn't recall such a ritual on the Centre-run campus earlier.
"Times have changed," said a former director of the institute JS Yadav.
He said:  "A yagna has no place in an academic institute."
A staff member who wished to remain anonymous said, next time there is a seminar "we might as well begin with a Christian prayer just to be fair".
The National Journalism seminar will begin with a session of Yoga, which on the face of it has little to do with reporting or subbing. But the authorities say Yoga will help the mind to concentrate on the subject of the session.
Right after Yoga is scheduled the 50-minute yagna, presumably to please the gods of journalism. The specific subject of the session is 'National Journalism in the Current Perspective: Media and Myth'.
The seminar is being organised by a publication called Media Scan. The IIMC, and the Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti ­- also a central institute - are the partners.
IIMC director KG Suresh, who is a speaker at the session, said that the IIMC had no hand in the proceedings and that the institute was only lending the hall to the organizers for free. If a yagna is a part of it, not much could be done about it, he said.

"We give our hall for the use of media persons who want to organize an event as long as it is not objectionable, communal, obscene or provocative. Renting the hall is expensive. If I want to help a media organisation, we have to become their partner.
Our only support is to give the hall. The organizing, selection of speakers, and paying for snacks is up to them. Exams and classes are over and we have not asked students to attend. Also, Saturday is a holiday. Can I stop anyone from lighting a lamp or garlanding an image? The yagna won't be held in the hall." He didn't specify where it would be held.
Media Scan proprietor Ashish Kumar said: "The yagna will not be performed by a priest but by one of us organizers. What's wrong? Don't we light lamps and garland pictures at functions?"
Narendra Singh Rao, an IIMC lecturer sacked last year for going public about alleged harassment, said: "I never saw a yagna in my seven years there."
The seminar has several sessions, on topics such as Dalits and tribals, rewriting of history, public policy and expertise, and Jammu and Kashmir.
The yagna and the inaugural session will be reportedly moderated by Hitesh Shankar, publisher of RSS journal Panchajanya. The yagna session will start from 7.30am.

• India