Fresh blow to historic Science Congress as host, Lovely Professional University, backs out

A month after announcing that it would host the 109th edition of the Indian Science Congress, the Jalandhar-based Lovely Professional University has backed out, The Hindu has reliably learnt

A month after announcing that it would host the 109th edition of the Indian Science Congress, the Jalandhar-based Lovely Professional University (LPU) has backed out, The Hindu has reliably learnt. This makes it unlikely that the annual three-day event — traditionally inaugurated by the Prime Minister and with a history stretching back to pre-Independent India — can be held as usual in the first week of January, according to functionaries associated with the Indian Science Congress Association (ISCA), the Kolkata-based organiser of the Congress.

This comes after the Department of Science and Technology (DST) — which funds the Science Congress and pays for much of ISCA’s budget — alleged that the decision to hold the event at LPU was one of several “unilateral” decisions taken by a “few members” of ISCA.

“Unforeseen challenges have arisen, making it unfeasable [sic] for Lovely Professional [University] to fulfill its hosting responsibilities,” said an email dated December 17, sent from LPU registrar Monica Gulati to ISCA general president Arvind Saxena.

Mr. Saxena told The Hindu that he was sent the email without warning and was “surprised” by LPU’s decision. “The programme schedules have been drawn, speakers invited... The last-minute withdrawal means that it is unlikely we can go ahead in January,” he said in a phone conversation.

Ironically, LPU’s sudden withdrawal comes after it had, of its own accord, offered to host the event, after the original host chosen by the ISCA – the University of Lucknow – rescinded its offer. The LPU had previously hosted the Science Congress in 2019.

Once the only event of its kind, where India’s pre-eminent scientists and technologists — as well as the occasional foreign Nobel Laureate — converged to discuss scientific updates, give public lectures, and interact with school and college-going students from across the country, the Science Congress has had multiple trysts with controversy over the last decade.

This has ranged from scientists decrying it as irrelevant to the times, as having lost its purpose of promoting science and, more recently, for platforming discourse that promotes pseudo science. The 2015 edition had a speaker holding forth on “Vedic aircraft”. In 2019, former Andhra University vice-chancellor G. Nageshwar Rao claimed that the “Kauravas [of the Mahabharat] were born of stem cell technology”. In 2016, India-born Nobel Laureate Venky Ramakrishnan described the ISC itself as a “circus.”