The President, Pranab Mukherjee, said that all institutions of higher learning, and universities, should be bastions of free speech. Debates must be encouraged. The president said this at the first convocation of Nalanda University recently.
His sentiments are absolutely in the right place and he is correct. Universities must be those protected spaces where the freedom of speech is tantamount. These are the breeding grounds for politicians, for free thinkers and for movements. In the past, almost all politicians were grassroots leaders and student activists. They came up learning about politics and ideals in colleges and universities.
But today the situation is far different. Take the JNU incident for example. This is a university that can pride itself on, among other things, being the most radical of institutions in the country. Yet this was where Kanhaiya Kumar was browbeaten for having a different view.
Sedition should be cracked down upon, but there cannot be a rampant imposing of sedition laws when someone disagrees with the government. Would this have happened in America? If the students of UCLA had shouted pro-Russian slogans they wouldn’t have been attacked and imprisoned. In India, the ruling class clamps down on dissent, in universities and just about anywhere else.
