It has been reported that the Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University has taken a malodorous decision and Great, eminent historian,87 years, professor Emeritus Romila Thapar was asked to submit her CV to see if she could continue as professor Emerita at the history faculty where she is revered as a teacher, scholar of amazing intellectual prowess. Several other distinguished academicians like Molecular biologist Asis Datta and theoretical physicist R.Rajaraman, etc have been asked to submit their CVS so that the committee could evaluate their works and decide whether they could continue. They have been appointed for a lifetime, and reviewing is not only preposterous but also suspicious. These professors are scholars of international stature and they are reputed public intellectuals-an endangered species in India. It is not clear what JNU is hoping to achieve? Is it possible that JNU would strip them off? Such an action would bring JNU disrepute among academics the world over. In Romila Thapar’s case, it must be a political vendetta as she is an acerbic critic of present government ‘s stand on history, which it wants it to be rewritten.
It’s the mindset that is to be blamed for such pinpricks, and for example, an FIR was filed against a TV journalist who taped visuals of a substandard mid-day meal of rotis and salt served in a school in UP. Is this not a clear case of shooting the messenger when the government ‘s response should have been to get to the root, to fix it? Vindictiveness will only boomerang.
It’s also reported that some of the 11 professors including Thapar have already complied with the request to send their CVs. It looks like JNU’s letter created a storm as they were seen as part of ruling dispensation to purge the institution for the reasons best known. But it’s again against what our PM said the other day. He said, people, can have different shades of views and do not need to agree on everything. In a zeal to clean up academia of left-liberal scholars, what perhaps is lost sight of the nurturing of ideas of various streams, that our PM spoke so eloquently about.
It’s the mindset that is to be blamed for such pinpricks, and for example, an FIR was filed against a TV journalist who taped visuals of a substandard mid-day meal of rotis and salt served in a school in UP. Is this not a clear case of shooting the messenger when the government ‘s response should have been to get to the root, to fix it? Vindictiveness will only boomerang.
It’s also reported that some of the 11 professors including Thapar have already complied with the request to send their CVs. It looks like JNU’s letter created a storm as they were seen as part of ruling dispensation to purge the institution for the reasons best known. But it’s again against what our PM said the other day. He said, people, can have different shades of views and do not need to agree on everything. In a zeal to clean up academia of left-liberal scholars, what perhaps is lost sight of the nurturing of ideas of various streams, that our PM spoke so eloquently about.
