New Delhi: A group of Indian scientists has written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, objecting to the exclusion of Israel from the International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics that concluded in Mumbai last month. While the IOAA is an international event hosted by a group of countries, the letter dated 26 August stated that it was the current president of the body, Aniket Sule of Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, who was responsible for “embarrassing the government of India”.
The letter, signed by the likes of JNU V-C Santishree Pandit, IISER Bhopal Director Gobardhan Das, and IIT Kanpur Director Manindra Agrawal, calls for strict action against professors named in the letter for pushing a “selective political resolution targeting Israel”.
The decision of the international board of the IOAA—of leaving a country out—is not new.
In 2022, the board decided to exclude Russia and Belarus from participation in the Olympiad citing the invasion of Ukraine.
This year, the IOAA was held between 11 and 21 August. The opening ceremony featured a special video address by Modi. While supported by the Indian government’s Department of Atomic Energy this year, the IOAA is an independent association, with an executive committee, international board and council with participants from 63 member countries.
During its annual meeting this year in Mumbai, the IOAA international board decided to suspend Israel’s participation in the Olympiad until further notice. This decision, as explained in a statement by the IOAA on 29 August, was taken keeping in mind the Israeli military’s actions in Gaza. However, individual teams from Israel and their mentors are allowed to participate, without the banner or national identifier of Israel.
While the international board meeting was chaired by the current president Aniket Sule, who is an associate professor at the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education at TIFR, the decision was based on the overwhelming majority of 120 votes.
“The current IB includes more than 120 individuals from 63 different countries. However, the IB members participate in IOAA deliberations in their individual capacity and their views do not necessarily reflect the official position of the countries they come from,” read the official announcement by IOAA. The letter sent to Modi accuses Aniket Sule and a select group of other academics of “hijacking” the IOAA platform to push their political agenda.
The current international board of the IOAA only has three Indian members, including Sule. The general secretary, Natasa Dragovic, is from the US, and the other executive council members are from Thailand, Portugal, and Poland. Other member representatives include those from the US, Ukraine, Iran, UAE, United Kingdom—but not Russia or Belarus.
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Participation of Israel
Since the IOAA’s inception in 2007, neither Palestine nor Israel has ever participated in the Olympiad. It was only in 2025 that Israel’s contingent expressed an interest in participating, but then withdrew it.
The Indian academics’ letter, however, alleged that Sule and seven other Indian academics launched a campaign to exclude Israel as an official participant in the Olympiad.
Referring to India becoming ‘vishwaguru’, the letter said a move like this undermines India’s role as a neutral host for scientific events. It also urged Modi to take strict action against the academics for “damaging India’s global standing”. It also said that academic freedom does not extend to ‘misusing’ national platforms to attack India’s foreign policy.
The official statement from the IOAA, published on 29 August, clarified that the decision to include Israel began back in the 2024 edition of the Olympiad, which was held in Brazil.
Additionally, the statement pointed out that the IOAA is not run by the host country, and that none of its decisions are a reflection of the country’s politics.
“The IOAA international board is an international body founded on democratic principles, and deliberations in its meetings are independent of the host country of IOAA,” said the IOAA announcement. “The host country and the local organizing committee/host institution have no role to play in setting the agenda … and hence cannot influence the decisions.”
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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