STATEMENT BY ASHOKA UNIVERSITY FACULTY - March 18, 2021
To, Professor Malabika Sarkar, Vice Chancellor
Mr. Ashish Dhawan, Chairman of Board of Trustees Ashoka University.
The resignation of Professor Pratap Bhanu Mehta from Ashoka
University on Tuesday, March 16, 2021 is a matter of great anguish for the
university faculty. It is not just an occasion for sorrow over the departure of
a deeply respected and admired colleague. It also raises urgent questions about
the university’s commitment to academic freedom as well as its internal
processes.
In light of media reports that circulated before the official
announcement of Professor Mehta’s departure from the university, it seems quite
plausible that his resignation was a direct consequence of his role as a public
intellectual and critic of the government. We are greatly troubled by this
scenario. Even more troubling is the possibility that our university may have
acceded to pressure to remove Professor Mehta or to request, and accept, his
resignation. This would fly against the principles of academic freedom on which
Ashoka University has been set up – and which Professor Mehta, in his time as
Vice Chancellor and University Professor, has so scrupulously fought to defend.
It would also set a chilling precedent for future removals of faculty,
curtailing our sense of who we are as researchers and teachers.
We request the university to ask Professor Mehta to rescind
his resignation. We also request that the university clarify its internal
protocols of faculty appointment and dismissal, and reinforce its institutional
commitment to the principles of academic freedom. We stand fully in support of
Professor Mehta and all academics who risk their personal and professional
well-being by speaking truth to power.
Sincerely,
Ashoka Faculty. March 18, 2021
Pratap Bhanu Mehta Resigns, Paving The Way For A New Plot
(The Edict, THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF ASHOKA UNIVERSITY)
A source, who wishes to remain anonymous, told The Edict
that the resignation of Professor Pratap Bhanu Mehta was endorsed by the
Founders of the University. This endorsement, according to a senior faculty
member with whom our source spoke, was motivated by an understanding that if
Prof. Mehta resigned, the University’s efforts to acquire a new plot of land to
expand the campus would get much smoother. Additionally, formal recognition for
the fourth-year post-graduate diploma, Ashoka Scholars’ Program, was also
hinted at being part of the deal.
A couple hours before noon on 17th March, The
Indian Express reported that noted public intellectual and former
Vice-Chancellor of Ashoka University, Pratap Bhanu Mehta, had resigned as a
professor of political science in the University. The circumstances surrounding
the resignation were unclear. The University had “sidestepped” a question by
the Indian Express about whether the resignation was related to Prof. Mehta’s
criticism of the government. This was coupled with a scathing tweet by Krea
University Prof. Ramachandra Guha following the release of the news, in which
he stated that “[the University’s Trustees] have chosen to crawl when asked to
bend,” implying that there was more to the resignation than meets the eye…
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