New Delhi: Countering narrative building around reasons for the exit of Professor Pratap Bhanu Mehta, Ashoka University Chancellor Rudrangshu Mukherjee has said the institution remains committed to academic freedom and intellectual independence, and its founders have never interfered with academic freedom.
Days after Mehta, who had resigned as vice-chancellor of the university two years back, chose to step down as professor, saying the founders made it "abundantly clear" that his association with the institution was a "political liability", Mukherjee wrote to faculty and students clearing the air.
"Today when the Founders are being attacked for trying to compromise and curtail academic autonomy and freedom of expression, I find it necessary as Chancellor and given my association with Ashoka from its inception, to state unambiguously that the Founders have never interfered with academic freedom: faculty members have been left free to construct their own courses, follow their own methods of teaching and their own methods of assessment," he wrote.
They, he said, have also been left free to carry out their own research and publications.
"There are only two points that the Founders have insisted upon. One, that Ashoka should not compromise on intellectual standards; and two, that the Foundation Courses should be integral to Ashoka's academic offering," he wrote on March 20.
Over 150 international academics have come out in support of Mehta in an open letter that described his resignation from Ashoka University as a "dangerous attack" on academic freedom. Former RBI governor and economist Raghuram Rajan too has expressed solidarity in a blog, saying, "Metha is a thorn in the side of the establishment".
The university students union has given a strike call on March 22-23 over the resignation of Mehta and Arvind Subramanian, noted economists who resigned in solidarity with Mehta.
Ashoka University on Sunday acknowledged "lapses in institutional processes" and expressed "deep regret" at the recent events surrounding the resignations of political commentator Mehta and noted economist Subramanian from its faculty.
Meanwhile, Mehta wrote a letter to students, urging them to not "press" for his return, asserting that the circumstances that led to his resignation will not change in the foreseeable future.
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