Following a notice issued by Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) through its website to postpone the 79th annual session of the Indian History Congress (IHC), scheduled for December 28 – December 30 December this year at its campus, the latter has decided to hold the session at a different venue by the end of March 19.
In a statement issued by Mahalakshmi Ramakrishnan, secretary, IHC, the venue (SSPU) was earlier decided on the invitation of its vice-chancellor Nitin Karmalkar dated December 8, 2017.
“On the assurance of vice-chancellor (SPPU), the executive committee of the Indian History Congress (IHC) at its meeting in Kolkata on December 29, 2017, accepted the invitation, and fixed the dates for December 28- December 30, 2018. The vice-chancellor himself appointed Radhika Seshan of his University as local secretary. Calling off the session at such a short notice is indeed disturbing and yet the university called for and continued to receive delegate fees of ₹2,000 till the first week of December 2018. Further, the local secretary’s circular was itself sent out three months ago to the IHC members; hence it is strange that this should have been done if a decision to not hold the Congress had already been taken at that time,” reads the IHC statement.
Hence, the IHC executive committee at an emergency meeting on December 14 has decided to hold the 79th session at a different venue by end of March 2019.
{{/usCountry}}Hence, the IHC executive committee at an emergency meeting on December 14 has decided to hold the 79th session at a different venue by end of March 2019.
{{/usCountry}}Meanwhile, SPPU is optimistic that they will host the session on a mutually convenient future date as suggested by the varsity.
Prafulla Pawar, SPPU registrar, said, “The statement issued by IHC is far from the truth. It appears that there is a misunderstanding about the situation at our end. We were extremely delighted to host such a prestigious conference especially when our former vice-chancellor DW Potdar is the founder of IHC. We made every effort till the last moment to make it successful before we realised that we need more time for preparations and arranging resources to make it a grand event. We are still optimistic that we will host this event on a mutual convenient future date as suggested by SPPU.”
Earlier, SPPU had cited lack of funds and lack of accommodation as the reasons for postponement of the IHC annual session.