It was an academic Discussion and not a political Discussion. Everyone just discussed about the legal and constitutional framework around disinformation. Political parties or even political controversies didn't come into picture. Hence, there is no need to make it Left vs Right issue & talk about political diversity.

Comment rightly marked as trollish. Having interacted with peers, seniors as well as juniors I found SACJ one of the most acceptable & inclusive societies, with positive feedback throughout. Members are made to feel like a part of the family and are involved in every decision making. The female professor referred here is the Founding Faculty Convenor of the society and was finalised as moderator at least 7 days ago.

The Panel Discussion will be streamed live at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTPPL4hJw5sCXI6RsIUzGkA.

All the interested participants can join the same & critically engage in a civilised manner. NUJS has explicitly said it to be a legal discussion and not political.

Btw, Ashish Goel has written not only about the failings of the BJP Government but also about judiciary, particularly against sexual harassment allegations against Gogoi back then (along with Bhatia) https://www.firstpost.com/india/metoo-allegation-against-ranjan-gogoi-in-open-letter-ashish-goel-gautam-bhatia-accuse-cji-of-travesty-of-justice-condemn-bar-council-stand-6493801.html. His SSRN author rank is 15,000 and Dam's rank is 12,000 (just for comparison). So save the sermons!

Mr. Ashish Goel was the former director/convenor of the Society organising this event. The society is the oldest society at NUJS (it was formed in 2005) & it is trying to reach all its former directors/convenors to engage alumni more with the GB. In recent months, NUJS is extensively trying to increase alumni connect. It would be great if you can gauge this trend by NUJS official pages on social media. Students who do not belong to NUJS should not comment before knowing the whole story.

I am shocked to see so many comments here trying to politicize the issue. The discussion has not even taken place yet, but we have jumped to conclusions and questioned the intention behind the panel discussion. Why cannot we be okay with the fact that when a speaker in invited to speak on a topic (by NUJS in this case), she or he comes and lends her or his views that may or may not necessarily align with the party stand. These are credible people who have to come to discuss on an important topic in their own right, regardless of their political ideologies. A University is a place to discuss and deliberate on contemporary ideas and issues and we would ill-serve the purpose of discussions and deliberations if we reduce all of this into a Congress versus BJP debate. Except Manish Tewary, not a single speaker is a member of the Congress party, so I fail to understand why someone should call this a Congress heavy panel? In fact, both Yashwant Sinha and Shivam Singh have worked for the BJP in the past. While it may be true that Ashish Goel writes and tweets against the prevailing dispensation, as someone seems to suggest here, but that means nothing. And so far as Paranjoy Thakurta is concerned, go watch some of his old videos where he had done a significant amount of Congress bashing on corruption, 2G scam, commonwealth scam etc etc.

Don't boycott the panel. Question them. Engage with them, NUJS teaches you tolerance & not intolerance. Also as per the college rules, all due necessary permissions & clarifications would have been granted from concerned authorities. You're not the authority to whom an answer is owed.

Mr nobody! The panel is diverse in nature. Mr Shivam Shankar Singh was associated with BJP IT Cell & worked as its data analyst. Yashwant Sinha was a Minister in BJP Led govt of Atal Bihari Vajpayee & was associated with the party for more than 25 years. His son is still BJP MP. And more importantly, it is not a political event. It's a legal event for deliberation & discussion. Manish Tewari is not coming as Congress leader, he's coming as an advocate & former I&B minister. Thakurta is an author & academician. Sinha is from Fact-checking website which is in news & will also be cross-questioned.

Instead of playing politics in such a cheap way, why can't the students lobby to have the advisory board of NUJS composed of eminent Bengalis from the liberal camp itself? That will really improve the image and standards of the institution. Some people who could be invited to join:

1. Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee
2. Former World Bank Chief Economist Kaushik Basu, who also instituted a lecture at NUJS (advisor to Manmohan and anti-BJP on Twitter)
3. Padma Bhushan Ashoke Sen, winner of the Fundamental Physics Prize and Infosys prize (signed anti-Modi petition)
4 Ashoka University Chancellor Rudrangshu Mukherjee (was once a lecturer at NUJS, known critic of BJP)
5. Sr Adv and Barrister Gourab Banerjee (ASG in Manmohan govt)
6. Sr Adv and Barrister Jaideep Gupta (son of former Solicitor General Dipankar Gupta, critical of BJP on Twitter)
7. NDTV owner Prannoy Roy (known anti-BJP)

I don't think any of them will decline. Much better to reach out to them than this bunch of nobodies.

Ashish Goel and Shivam Singh? 🙄 Just see their Twitter accounts. Completely BJP/anti-pro-Congress. It is beyond ridiculous that such a slanted panel has been formed. Not even a single person from the BJP to question the left-liberal narrative. Not a single guest form a party which has 300+ seats but a party with 40 seats gets invited. Yet so many people could have been invited:

- Former journalist and BJP MP Swapan Dasgupta: an excellent and articulate debater who would have destroyed them single handedly

- Former I&B Minister and BJP MP Col RS Rathore: Calm and composes speaker, who also worked in the relevant ministry.

- Senior Advocate and BJP MP Mahesh Jethmalani: another excellent speaker

- JNU professor, political analyst and SM influencer Anand Ranganathan (scientist with a PhD from Cambridge): Pro-BJP. Would have been a great fit for this.

- Journalist and SM influencer Minhaz Merchant (pro-BJP): also a good speaker

- Political analyst and SM influencer Abhijit Iyer-Mitra: One more good speaker

- NUJS's own alum Lokenath Chatterjee, who stood on a BJP ticket in the Bengal elections (first ever NLU alum to receive an election ticket). Why invite Ashish Goes and not him?

https://www.barandbench.com/apprentice-lawyer/attend-panel-discussion-on-the-legal-framework-on-disinformation-fake-news-june-5. Interested participants who believe in debates, discussion and proper sophisticated engagement irrespective of political ideologies can check this link for more details. Trolls should stay away. As simple as that.

Speaking of bias, it's cute how you used describe Paronjoy Guha Thakurta as JNU Guest Faculty. He's a guest faculty of IIM-Ahmedabad, IIM-Calcutta, IIM-Shillong, Delhi University, JNU and Jamia Milia.

It's also cute how the Adani group (the second richest conglomerate in India right now) using the intimidation of a 500 crore defamation suit against a small publishing house trust (which runs one of the few academic magazines in India) to take down the article - which the publishing house had no option but to do so because they couldn't pay for the litigation due to which PGT resigned - is being used as an example of clamping down on fake news.

That said, it will be cute of you to know that PGT has written way more articles and filmed way more documentaries against the Congress party than it has about the BJP. It's just that people who raised their voices against the government weren't branded anti-nationals then.

Yahswant Sinha symbolises everything wrong not only with politics but with [...]. For years this man was with the BJP and supporting its anti-Muslim politics. He was rewarded with ministries like finance and foreign affairs. After 2014, Modi denies him a Rajya Sabha ticket and retires him. Like an entitled spoilt baby he starts abusing Modi. Then, he becomes "secular" overnight and embraced by "liberals". Let's look at the anti-Muslim statements this hypocrite has made in the past:

Before 2014 elections, on Gujarat riots:

"Modi is right...why should he apologise? A 12-year-old issue is being constantly revived to corner Modi whereas the people of this nation have completely forgotten it! It has lost all its momentum,...No one is remotely concerned disturbed by what happened in Gujarat in 2002..."
https://www.indiatoday.in/elections/highlights/story/yashwant-sinha-narendra-modi-bjp-gujarat-riots-hazaribagh-rahul-gandhi-189300-2014-04-16

He also supported Modi for PM:

https://www.livemint.com/Politics/3qupMSrwEH4ChrwEIkXLjJ/Yashwant-Sinha-pitches-for-Modi-as-BJPs-PM-candidate.html

What a complete tool!

The party that has pioneered, institutionalised, and almost nationalised fake news spreading should have been there too. One needs to be able to examine the various aspects of the cancer before trying find its cure. Maybe Modiji will issue a show cause notice about why he has not been called, or Dhankhad would feel 'deeply insulted'.

A society at NUJS is organising a Panel Discussion on Fake News & Legal Framework to deal with it on 5 June 2021. Some of the guests are Yashwant Sinha, Vice President of TMC, Pratik Sinha, founder of Alt News, Manish Tewari, a Congress Leader, Paronjoy Thakurta, a Journalist & JNU Guest faculty. Opinions regarding the choice of guests & politicians for the same?