Scholars ‘reprimanded by universities’ for criticising Indian government

This is a one-sided skewed view blaming academic freedom at JNU on the present government at the center. The issue is that JNU has been the hotbed of academics and students who nurture communist ideals and now are deeply frustrated with the present regime. As an Indian, I do not see any indication of pressure, overt or covert in any of the academic activities. JNU because of the few, has suffered immensely as it once propagated the division of India on communal lines and also called for support of a terrorist involved in an Indian parliament attack.

The above commentator is wrong and has a flawed understanding of what is academic freedom. There is plenty of pressure on academics in India. which makes it very difficult to work on certain topics. If anybody supports the division of India on communal lines it is the current government .

The usual diatribe that we are now used to with the THE. He-said-she-said sort of reporting. Nor is it amazing that this dumbed-down rubbish is meant for consumption by the academic community. One only has to consider the kind of lousy work that passes for research on India in British academia.

This is what the BJP has led India to. A complete nose dive of what the country was. Watch the space, it will get only worse.

"JNU because of the few, has suffered immensely as it once propagated the division of India on communal lines...." Division of India on communal lines happened in 1947. JNU was established in 1969/70.

What JNU is witnessing today cannot be seen in isolation from what has transpired since 2014 and how many like me who have studied in JNU have at times been frustrated with an ecosystem which rewarded left leaning students over others. And no one would dare challenge that ecosystem as it may impact one’s grading in exams. So there is a strong alternate perspective which needs to be factored in along with these claims which THE says cannot be verified, and should have been verified before putting out in the media. Today, in India there is a new historical consciousness and national narrative which has challenged the old ecosystem and the history as we have studied, largely written by the Leftist historians. There have been events such as distribution of sweets in JNU when 76 armed personnel of the CRPF were killed in Dantewada and having my late father in the CRPF, I take serious objection to such celebration, many of which are condoned by academics crying foul today. When academics, student union peddle a narrative which talks of India’s breakup “Barbadi, “sympathasizing with terror convicts”, abusing the Supreme Court for sentencing Afzal Guru and backing protests which have been largely supported and funded by forces inimical to India, a backlash was bound to happen. I have studied in JNU, have experienced the ecosystem first hand, and while I deeply respect the institution, I have serious reservations against seeing the lines of politics and teaching being blurred. JNU is public-funded institution, and academics and others must understand that JNU cannot live and function in isolation from the new narrative and national consciousness which has little sympathy for those who distribute sweets on the killings of our jawans and those who attack our pillars of democracy. The backlash is the outcome of the deeds of many who are crying foul today, and have functioned with impunity in the Left dominated ecosystem. It's a churning coming of age.