Will not withdraw resignation, Pratap Bhanu Mehta told Ashok University students

Political scientist Pratap Bhanu Mehta has told the students of Ashoka University that he will not withdraw his resignation because of “underlying circumstances” [it] Will not change for the foreseeable future. “

In a letter to his students in the early hours of Sunday, Prof Mehta insisted that his time with Ashoka University was a closed chapter. “[It] Not an easy decision. But this, to me, is the only honorable thing to conform to my values; Value I think you share. I believe it is in the best interest of the university, ”he wrote. He said, “The circumstances that led to the resignation will not change at any rate, for my future, for the changing future.”

He resigned earlier this week after a meeting with the university’s founders, making it clear that his association with the institution could be considered a “political obligation”. Fellow professor and former chief economic adviser Arvind Subramanian resigned in solidarity two days later, stating that the university could no longer “provide space for academic expression and freedom.”

On Saturday, the student union announced a two-day boycott of classes from Monday, with the university seeking to give Professor Mehta a job with public acceptance of the pressure behind his resignation. In his letter, Proc. Mehta urges them not to pressurize him on the matter because “your mission is greater than the fate of two professors”. Recalling his previous resignation as Vice Chancellor of Ashoka two years ago, he said that he “did not want to woo fate”.

He praised the students’ protest, noting that “it was about Ashoka’s institutional integrity.” But it was also about the dark and ominous shadows that hovered over India’s democracy. He urged the students to work with the trustees and teachers to “secure the institutional autonomy and independence Ashoka needs”.

Stating that “the specter of totalitarianism is also hovering over us, it often puts us in an often uncomfortable and sometimes abusive situation”, he said that this would not be enough to calm the horrifying darkness, and that Confided that your students will shine a light instead.

Remembering the texts of Philosophy and Political Science he had taught them through the year, Proc. Mehta said, “But what you’ve taught us is worth something more: a liberal value is more about a character than they are about accepting a cult.”