New Delhi: Renowned economist Amit Bhaduri resigned Monday as Professor Emeritus from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) to mark his protest against the administration’s handling of the ongoing protests.
Stating that there has been a steady “intellectual disintegration”, Bhaduri announced his decision in an open letter in which he said he watched with “increasing disgust” at how the JNU vice-chancellor M. Jagadesh Kumar has handled matters.
Noting that it was a matter of pride for JNU’s faculty and students that they were exposed to a range of ideas, Bhaduri said the current turn of events show that the administration’s “attempt at destroying that atmosphere of freedom of expression is in line with a larger and more sinister plan”.
Also read: In Modi’s opposition-mukt India, JNU must remain the Eternal Protester
Read Amit Bhaduri’s full letter here:
Dear Mr. Vice Chancellor,
I have learnt from friends and witnessed through public channels with alarm, and now with increasing disgust how your handling of situations as the administrative and academic head of Jawaharlal Nehru University has led to its steady deterioration paving the way to its intellectual disintegration.
I joined the university as a young professor in 1973; with some years’ gap in between, I left it in 2001. During my years at JNU, it passed through various phases of justified or unjustified student unrest; competent or incompetent handling of situations by the administration; and even temporary shut-down of teaching. What is different now is not only incompetence of handling of situations by the authorities, but a deliberate attempt to throttle the free, and lively atmosphere of debate and discussion for which JNU was known all over the country.
This was a matter of pride for its faculty as well as its students that they were exposed to a whole range of ideas which was something that did not happen anywhere else in India, even I would say from experience, in very few academic institutions in the world. It seems to me that the current attempt by the administration at destroying that atmosphere of freedom of expression is in line with a larger and more sinister plan of which you as the head of JNU also appear to be a pivotal part.
You seem determined on imprinting your administration’s narrow minded world view, and shut all other windows of ideas to the students.
It pains me, but I feel it would be immoral on my part without registering my protest to remain a silent observer in this larger, sinister scheme of throttling dissent which is unfolding now at the University.
I am protesting in the only way which I find is open to me. I am giving up my emeritus professorship at JNU. Along with some other emeritus professors, I have already been locked out several months ago from the room allotted to me in JNU (with books and some personal effects still in it). In practical terms therefore, it means little. And yet, I do hope that my returning the honour which was bestowed on me by the University sends you the right message of my deep concern at your leadership of the university which is leading that premier institution of learning to its systematic disintegration. For this reason alone, I feel compelled to place this letter also in public domain.
Amit Bhaduri
Also read: Why I didn’t call myself a JNU-ite for 37 yrs. But now something has changed: Yogendra Yadav
I totally agree with you. But about pay of faculty as per global standards, have you taken into account PPP and taxes in developed countries and average income of people in the countries.
@ ashok
18 out of 32 candidates selected for the Indian Economic Service in 2019 are from JNU. Ma Saraswati resides in its campus.
Sad. The assault – the recent physical one, by masked bandits – on JNU has drawn censure from The Economist. One way or another, 2024 will not be decided on its campus. Or on the many other campuses, some of which have had run ins. Our educational institutions figure nowhere in the world’s top 500. The few islands of excellence that have been created, in part by faculty that is paid peanuts by global standards, need to be nurtured. Very good – if occasionally rebellious, tempestuous – human capital passes through their portals. Whether the VC goes or stays will be decided by a level far above ours. However, we need a reset with the academic world. Aishe Ghosh, not Komal Sharma, should be the face of the Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao campaign.