Distressed: Academics Write Slamming Ashoka Univ for Mehta’s Exit

Signatories to the letter include professors from Universities of Harvard, Stanford, Oxford, Cambridge, MIT, Yale.

Academics and scholars from across the world have written a scathing open letter to the trustees of Ashoka University expressing their “distress” at the resignation of political scientist Pratap Bhanu Mehta “under political pressure.”

The letter, signed by nearly 180 academics, expresses support to Mehta and slams the trustees of the private university, who, it says, “all but forced his resignation” instead of “defending him as their institutional duty.”

The letter, titled ‘A Dangerous Attack on Academic Freedom, states, “a prominent critic of the current Indian government and defender of academic freedom, he had become a target for his writings.”

Signatories to the letter include professors from Universities of Harvard, Stanford, Oxford, Cambridge, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Yale, Brown, Princeton, McGill, Columbia, California, and Chicago.

Political scientist and scholar Pratap Bhanu Mehta tendered his resignation as professor from Ashoka University on 16 March. Former chief economic advisor Arvind Subramanian resigned from the university as a professor two days later.

Mehta said that he was doing so after it was made abundantly clear to him that his association with the institution “may be considered a political liability.”

Mehta, in his letter, said that his public writing is perceived to carry risks for the university.

As the exit of the two high-profile professors snowballed into an image crisis for the university, professors and scholars had also taken to Twitter to hit out at the university administration for its “intolerance” and “spinelessness of trustees.”

“We write in solidarity with Pratap Bhanu Mehta, and to reaffirm the importance of the values that he has always practiced,” the open letter states, adding:

“In political life, these are free argument, tolerance, and a democratic spirit of equal citizenship. In the university, they are free inquiry, candor, and a rigorous distinction between the demands of intellectual honesty and the pressure of politicians, funders, or ideological animus (sic).”

“These values come under assault whenever a scholar is punished for the content of public speech,” the letter adds.

Here’s the full text of the letter:

We are distressed to learn of Pratap Bhanu Mehta’s resignation under political pressure from Ashoka University. A prominent critic of the current Indian government and defender of academic freedom, he had become a target for his writings. It seems that Ashoka’s Trustees, who should have treated defending him as their institutional duty, instead all but forced his resignation. As he put it in his eloquent resignation letter: “My public writing in support of a politics that tries to honour constitutional values of freedom and equal respect for all citizens is perceived to carry risks for the university.”

We write in solidarity with Pratap Bhanu Mehta, and to reaffirm the importance of the values that he has always practiced. In political life, these are free argument, tolerance, and a democratic spirit of equal citizenship. In the university, they are free inquiry, candor, and a rigorous distinction between the demands of intellectual honesty and the pressure of politicians, funders, or ideological animus. These values come under assault whenever a scholar is punished for the content of public speech. When that speech is in defense of precisely these values, the assault is especially shameful.

The university must be a home for fearless inquiry and criticism. We support Pratap Bhanu Mehta in his practice of the highest values of intellectual inquiry and public life.