Opinion Express View on Jindal university and free speech: Stain on campus

University administrations — public and private — across the country have, in recent years, unfortunately not always stood up for academics and students when the latter have questioned the dominant ideas and powers that be. Teachers and students have been arrested, discussions, even movie screenings stalled or called off. Academics at prestigious private universities that claim to champion liberal values have been forced out and university authorities have not refrained from inviting the police on campus. In this milieu, OP Jindal Global University (JGU) seemed to have, quietly and without fuss, created a space even as others in its neighbourhood ceded it. However, the JGU administration’s action against two students for “putting up posters and engaging in conversation” that involved “derogatory and provocative words” flies against its own record and stated principles. More importantly, it undermines the idea and promise of a university. It’s a stain on the campus.

The action against the students was in response to posters and discussion on the Ram temple at Ayodhya. Reportedly, the framing of the discussion was critical of the dominant politics surrounding the consecration. On February 10, the students were suspended for a semester and late that night, they were “evicted” from campus housing. According to the university’s Student Disciplinary Committee, the punishment was for “a serious violation of the student code of conduct”. This wasn’t a frightened university administration giving in to goons, this was the university punishing free speech.

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JGU is an “Institution of Eminence” and, to the credit of its leadership, its law school has been ranked among the top 100 in the world. Its faculty includes a former Chief Justice of India, a former SC justice and social scientists. They could tell the JGU administration that ideas are tested through debate, and a campus can remain “excellent” only if it allows students to experiment with them. After all, a campus is the only place where you have the right to be wrong. There’s no evidence that the two students were fomenting violence or breaking a law. “At the core of JGU’s vision and mission”, according to its website, “is our aspiration to be a role model for excellence in higher education in India and among the leading universities of the world”. It also promises to remain sensitive to the “deepening of democratic traditions in India”. The university should revoke the suspensions, ensure that expressing an idea can’t be the reason for students to be evicted from a residential campus. Otherwise, JGU’s words on democracy will ring hollow, its global ranking a mere marketing number.