New Delhi: Madabhushi Madan Gopal, an ex-IAS officer and the chairperson of the Board of Governors of the Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISER) has initiated action against members of the institute who approved jailed scholar Umar Khalid’s book, Fractured Communities: Adivasi Histories and the Politics of Power, for inclusion in its library. The scholar-activist’s highly-regarded PhD thesis was recently published in book form.Gopal’s decisions came to light in his own post on X. The post was in response to an anonymous handle on X, which goes by the pseudonym “Gems of Indian Academia”. The Gems account wrote on Saturday (October 24) at 6.20 pm: “Umar Khalid’s thesis is added as a book at IISER, Pune. This is a central government institution for science research.” The response from Gopal came 12 hours later, at 7.35 am on Sunday (October 25), announcing that he was “shocked to know this” and that “action is initiated on those who played this mischief”. He did not specify the “action” or the “mischief”, but he wrote – in response to the anonymous tweet – that Sunil Bhagwat, the director of IISER, had “taken immediately steps”, which were also not specified.He also wrote that the book had already been retracted “last night”, presumably the very day the anonymous X handle posted the news, alongside a photograph of the title, publicised at the IISER campus. “I assure such things will not happen again in IISER Pune. We need to be alert,” he assured the anonymous handle. Gems of Indian Academia has a relatively modest following, of around 6,100 followers, and it claims to “expose” Indian academia over various perceived flaws. The post about Khalid was seen 6,000 times and shared a third as many times at the time of publication of this report. Also read: ‘I Must Acknowledge the Role of the Present Regime and its Foot Soldiers…’: Umar KhalidHowever, the conversation between the ex-IAS officer and the Gems handle went on, with Gems calling his announcement of action against unnamed persons “Gems of Indian Academia impact…”.Later on Sunday, at around 8 pm, Gopal posted a video meant to lampoon historical figures, in which an actor plays Hitler and makes a Holocaust “joke” in poor taste. The same post mocks women who were killed during the inquisition.Over the course of Sunday morning, Gopal reassures several people who approach him on X about the Khalid book, that action had been taken and so on. He then latches on to “leftist, jihadi elements” and “the menace of anti-national ecosystem”, and continues in this vein through the morning, resuming in the evening with the “funny” post.On Monday (October 26), he wrote: “nytimes is known for pedaling [peddling] falsehoods, no credibility whatsoever except from those who relish anti Bharat rants.”On September 20, the Gems handle demanded a “ban on humanities” because some “Marxists” were resisting Hindutva religio-political jargon.Pune-based IISER was envisaged as an autonomous research institute under the Union Ministry of Education. It was designated an institute of national importance by parliament in 2012.It barred the inclusion of Khalid’s book in its library without discussion or debate, going by a statement from IISER cited in the Deccan Herald.The IISER statement reportedly said that “as soon as” it came to the institute’s notice that Fractured Communities had been included in its library, it “retracted” the title. The decision was apparently viewed as “a precaution in order to avoid any misunderstanding or unrest”.Also read: Hundreds Attend Discussion on Umar Khalid’s Book After JNU Denies Students a VenueKhalid has been jailed without trail since 2020 in the Delhi violence larger conspiracy case. His opponents have often disrupted events where he or his prolonged pre-trial detention are mentioned. He is charged under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.The statement said the institute would “examine” what further action or steps can be taken, without indicating which direction these steps would head in, or what the perceived error was. Titles by people imprisoned prior to or after the writing of their books do not have to be withdrawn in Indian libraries as a matter of course.Further, books being included in libraries are not necessarily endorsements but texts that are being made available for study and research.