Pitched battle on campus: Censorship and policing have restricted exchange of ideas at educational institutions

The future beckons those who endeavour to conquer new frontiers. The seeds of such conquests are sown in an environment which nurtures innovation. Universities, which cater to academic freedom become cauldrons of ideas inviting debate and discussions. An education system that fails to encourage young minds to charter their own destiny becomes effete and condemned to mediocrity.

IITs, IIITs, NITs, ISERSs, IIMSs and central universities all funded by the government are over-regulated. These institutions should be given the freedom to manage their finances in the manner they wish — recruit academics, decide on salary structures, devise their own courses, allow collaborations with institutions within India and abroad. Synergies between universities in India should be encouraged. That can only happen if institutions adopt the semester system. Students should have the freedom to select courses in other institutions and get credit for them. Technology enables institutions to partner and, drawing from each other’s strengths, devise courses depending on the interests of the student community. Universities connected through fibre optics can, with innovative thinking, allow access to lectures offered by teachers. Online courses can be offered, course material can be accessed by those who do not have the benefit of admission to quality institutions. Such networks can become highways of information and help empower not just the student community, but also faculty. Unfortunately, our priorities are different.

Since 2014, central universities in India have been converted into ideological war zones where politics of a particular brand is given priority over academic scholarship. If a Chief Minister speaking at a convocation of the Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences on September 16, 2017, claims that China was researching how Hindu God Ganesh’s head was replaced by an elephant’s head and exhorted doctors to discover the treasures of our scriptures, we know that education is in jeopardy. He also wanted students to find the herb that brought back Laxman to life. This negates the premise of a scientific temper necessary for rational thinking. That India invented the aeroplane eight years before the Wright brothers, according to MoS, HRD, harking students to study Hindu deities along with the Puranas, shows the tragic trajectory of our institutions of learning under the new dispensation.

University campuses across the country have been bristling with controversies that do us no credit. BHU’s Vice-Chancellor had a run in with girl students on the issue of eve-teasing and molestation in the campus. The logic advanced by the Vice-Chancellor was women should sacrifice their freedom for their own safety. He allowed ABVP to hold rallies within the campus and reportedly hoisted the RSS flag. He also said that there was nothing objectionable about an RSS shakha in the campus since the Indian government itself belonged to the RSS. Rohith Vemula’s suicide and the ensuing controversy involving Union ministers questioning his caste status made Hyderabad Central University an ideological battleground rather than a centre of learning. A Union minister called it a den of casteist, extremist and anti-national politics. The ugly scenes at the JNU which witnessed anti-India slogans and the consequent prosecution under sedition laws of students, including Kanhaiya Kumar, reflects the changing environment. Clashes between ABVP and AISA students at Ramjas College, Delhi University, and those in Aligarh Muslim University and the unseemly events in Jadavpur University do not augur well for academics. Vibrant exchange of ideas through campus interactions has been a causality as it is being restricted by censorship and policing. Free debate and discussion is not being tolerated and established norms are being violated through government diktats.

Despite our best endeavours, no government has achieved public funding of 6 per cent of GDP in education. The Economic Survey of 2016-17 shows this figure to be 2.9 per cent of the GDP, though the HRD Minister stated that the figure was 4.5 per cent. The total spend must also reflect a rational distribution of expenditure amongst institutions of higher learning. Increasing allocations to a few institutions and starving others of funds is a bias that works against ordinary students. We should build world-class universities, but not by reducing funding to those who need it the most.

Education, apart from increased funding, requires structural metamorphosis. First, appointment of Vice Chancellors and heads of educational institutions must not reflect any ideological bias. Two, we require a new thrust to our education policy in the context of the communications revolution. Three, the UGC be disbanded and replaced with a National Knowledge Commission as conceived under UPA II: Separating funding and regulatory mechanisms, with the setting up of an Independent Regulatory Authority for Higher Education, apart from other changes. Four, much greater autonomy for institutions. Five, public-private partnerships in setting up new institutions addressing contemporary issues requiring urgent attention. Six, dealing with issues of fees and access in a holistic manner.

Education, like knowledge, is essentially a holistic endeavour. It is also interdisciplinary. Institutions must be built and transformed keeping that in mind. Above all, we must allow our students to be free to express themselves. Without that, education will be bereft of its soul.

The author is a member of the Rajya Sabha, and a senior Indian National Congress leader. Views expressed are personal.