Dr Paranjape wrote to us wanting to respond to Dr Jangam’s rebuttal. The full text of Dr Paranjape’s response is reproduced below. Response by Makarand R. Paranjape to: “Are you Stating Facts, Dr. Makarand Paranjape?”, Dr. Chinnaiah Jangam presents his side of the story” Re: the incident of 3 May 2017 at Carleton University, I would like to counter Asst. Prof. Chinnaiah Jangam on two grounds: facts and principles. But since most people have little time and less patience for the point by point refutation below, let me state the main issue simply and concisely. This is not a debate over whose politics or ideology is better, Asst Prof Jangam’s or mine. He believes that he should stop those whose views he disagrees with from undertaking legitimate and invited activities at Carleton University. It is this attitude that I totally disagree with; far from being a champion and defender he is an intolerant opponent of liberalism and freedom of expression. In this particular case, he actually succeeded in his design. The recording to which I was invited was cancelled. Now to a more detailed rejoinder. Part I: Facts 1. Asst. Prof. Jangam accuses me of the “secretive use” of the campus of Carleton University. But earlier in the same paragraph, speaking of my travels, he observes: “He has been on an overseas tour on the invitation of the organisation ‘Indic Book Club’ and has been publicising his talks regularly on Twitter. On May 2, 2017, he tweeted ‘Next stop: Carleton U, with Dr. Harsha Dehejia (with a picture of Dehejia), speaking on ‘Drishti: Is there an Indian Way of Seeing,’ to be recorded for CU TV.” How is my Carlton visit “secretive” if I publically announced it? In this regard, Dr. Dehejia reiterated to me in his email received on 12 May 2017: “Your event was not at all secretive. It was cleared by Prof. Shane Hawkins, Chair of the College of the Humanities. … Over the last 15 years, I have made about 10 video conversations with visiting artists and academics all of which I regularly use in my course RELI2515. This enriches my course and sometimes gives a different point of view.” 2. The above verifiable email puts paid to Asst Prof Jangam’s claim that I did not have “an official invitation from Carleton.” On the contrary, I was not only officially invited by Adjunct Professor Dr. Harsha V. Dehejia, but confirmed in an to Ms. Judy Donaldson, College Administrator, College of Humanities, Carleton University, my acceptance of the invitation and my permission to be recorded. I was also offered a modest honorarium from Carleton University for this recording. The prerequisite of any such payment has to be an official invitation, with a paper/email trail to prove it. Needless to say, after Asst Prof Jangam’s crusade scuppered the recording at the Media Centre, I declined and returned the payment. Therefore, at Asst Prof Jangam’s instigation, not only was an official programme, with an official invitation, cancelled, but such a cancellation also resulted in financial loss to me. Asst Prof Jangam not only tarnished my reputation, but caused me a quantifiable financial loss. 3. Asst Prof Jangam claims that I used Carleton “campus name and legitimacy” to promote the “recording as an achievement” of my “political campaigns on social media.” Wrong: I neither seek Carleton’s name nor legitimacy—my work speaks for itself. But isn’t it also possible that Carleton gains by visits by internationally published and known academics like me? As to seeking “legitimacy” for my “political campaigns on social media,” the charge is uninformed, if not unintelligent. I am an academic, not a politician; I entered the social media space quite recently not to conduct political campaigns but to publish information about my popular writings, especially columns in newspapers and periodicals. In the process, I have also posted brief comments and formulations, which may easily be misread, as often happens on SM. But I have invariably refrained from any hurtful or inflammatory posturing. In contrast, in the few tweets of Asst Prof Jangam that I have I encountered, he has already called me “liar” and other unsavoury epithets several times. In addition, I have posted originally composed haikus, because the 140-character medium is eminently suitable for such sharing. In my self-description, I also declare that I “not merely a political animal.” My point is that SM, especially Twitter, cannot be the sole means to “judge,” “brand,” and “condemn” a person’s politics, as Asst Prof Jangam seems to do, let alone declare him persona non grata on a campus. 4.