The rise of right wing extremism in India’s political scenario is taking a toll on the educational sphere as deliberate attempts are being made to exterminate the space of research and critical studies, opined a scholar who happens to be closely associated with the country’s premier higher education institute, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU).
Although the scholar who urged to remain anonymous, during an exclusive interview with MSMN, said, “A systematic way is being deployed by the central universities and other central government run education institutions to encroach the space the analytical thinking which may go against the interest of the right wing political organisations.”
Talking about the current situation in JNU in this context, the scholar was did not hold backing from stating that in JNU the students exhibit the toughest resistance aginst such measures by the authority.
“There is no doubt that in universities across the country that is headed by members of right wing organisations are following the same model of suppression. You get to hear about JNU more often than not as the authority is strongly challenged by the students here and thus it gets the maximum media coverage. In other places where the resistance is not strong enough, the authority is implementing rules according to their own will to fulfil their agendas”, the scholar said.
It needs to be taken into account that the Vice Chancellor of JNU, M Jagadesh Kumar, a former RashtriyaSwayamsevakSangh (RSS) member has been in news for all wrong reason since the beginning of his tenure. Last month, JNU once again made the headlines as 10 JNUSU students, including Umar Khalid, were “systematically harassed” by the administration as their registration for the monsoon session were blocked.
The scholar who has done his postdoc from the prestigious Oxford University further said that the space for extensive research in science is also getting narrowed down.
“Previously they attempted to block the way of extensive research in the field of studies related to humanity. Now, they are trying to replicate it n the genre of science too,” he said.
