Campus has the right to speak, discuss, debate
Hindustan TimesLast week, Shamsul Islam, an academic, was heckled as he arrived at University College, Mangalore, to deliver a lecture on the 1857 War of Independence. A few days earlier to this, the Bharatiya Janata Party MLA from Mangalore South constituency allegedly ordered the acting Vice-Chancellor of Mangalore University to celebrate Ganeshotsava in accordance with his directions. What I distinctly remember of those years is the academic environment of the university, where questions could be asked and issues could be raised without fear of persecution or intimidation either by the administrators of the institution or the teachers or by political parties or the ruling regime. For many years, Mangalore University provided us with such an academic space for learning, unlearning and relearning. It is, therefore, disturbing to see how, in recent years, political ideologues and elected representatives are trespassing into this space of the university and trying to restructure it through aggressive, coercive and insidious ways.
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Campus has the right to speak, discuss, debate
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