Government attacks on academic freedom are mounting

Academic freedom in higher education is essential so that students, faculty members and heads of institutions can work in an atmosphere where intellectual activities can be performed without fear of censorship or retaliation.

The autonomy provided to higher education institutions ensures their role in promoting pluralism, diverse views and transparency. There must be no place for ideological dogmatism in a university. But there has been a rise in the tendency of the Indian government to control institutional autonomy through coercive methods and the promotion of unscientific views.

Also, the overall atmosphere in a country where freedom of the press and various independent organisations are under threat means that academics are afraid of expressing their views and opinions freely.

Recently, there have been many instances where the government has interfered in the working of higher education institutions through the use of coercive methods. There was an order from the government to control the participation of foreign delegates in webinars, which was ultimately withdrawn after protests.

Another case is that of Ashoka University, a liberal arts institute of world class standard. A well-known public intellectual and former vice-chancellor of the university, Professor Pratap Bhanu Mehta, had to resign due to his criticism of the government. His resignation was followed by that of another faculty member at the same university, the world-famous economist Professor Arvind Subramanian.

Mehta had criticised the management of the university for caving into pressure from the government who had made it clear that he had become a political liability.

Government interference

There are a number of instances which show that government interference in academic affairs has become common. At Nalanda University Nobel Laureate Professor Amartya Sen was removed from the governing board and he has himself declined a second term, saying that the government does not want him to continue there.

A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP, Subramanian Swamy, even complained about a PhD thesis at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) at Ahmedabad on electoral democracy that said that the BJP is a pro-Hindu, upper caste party.

The ministry of education asked for a copy of the thesis to be sent to the prime minister. However, the director put his foot down. Nevertheless, the government later cited this example as a reason for controlling the autonomy of IIMs.

These are only a few of the instances out of a very large number of cases of attacks on the autonomy of higher education institutions.

But it is evident from them that, by restricting free expression or creating a fear of retaliation, the government is hampering the dissemination of knowledge and preventing rational judgement and action.

Even the new National Education Policy of 2020 proposes a concentration of government power over higher education. The Higher Education Commission (HEC) will replace the autonomous University Grants Commission. The HEC will be a single umbrella body for the entire higher education system, excluding medical and legal education.

There will be a National Higher Education Regulatory Council under the HEC which will be the single regulator for all elements of higher education, including teaching.

Vice-chancellor selection

Then there is the problem of the selection of vice-chancellors of universities. Since the government wants to base the selection of vice-chancellors on political considerations, almost half of central universities currently have no vice-chancellor.

This has hampered their ability to function as there is no-one who is able to take important academic decisions. Also, the recruitment of faculty has been delayed which results in an increase in the number of students per teacher.

According to a report in the Telegraph, education ministry officers blamed the delays on the Prime Minister’s Office, saying it was sitting on the files. This is despite the fact that the prime minister has no role to play in the selection of vice-chancellors.

All of this is worrying and will have a chilling effect on academic freedom.

Dr Mukhtar Ahmad is a retired professor of electrical engineering at Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India.