Tags:
Journalism of Courage
American Fulbright scholars being stonewalled by India8217;s bureaucracy have, as reported in this newspaper, appealed to the US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice. We would like to specifically address India8217;s prime minister. Like Rice, Manmohan Singh is a scholar-politician. More, Singh is a beneficiary of the open global trade in intellectual talent. Imagine the British bureaucracy sitting on Cambridge8217;s offer to Singh. You can8217;t. Therefore, we would like to ask Singh, what are the implications of his government8217;s babus, whether from HRD, home or external affairs, not only denying visas to American scholars selected by a globally respected academic foundation but also asking some of them to change research topics.
This is a shameful indictment of India8217;s claims to being a liberal democracy. There8217;s something dreadful about Intelligence Bureau staffers sitting in judgment on research topics. We can say this reminds us of China. Except that it would be unfair on China. China, first, makes no pretensions of being a democracy. Second, while free academic inquiry is not possible in China it is otherwise doing a fine job of integrating its higher education system to the global mainstream and upping its standards as a result. This is something India needs to do. But if the heavy hand of bureaucratic paranoia is going to guide scholarly pursuits then India, as a democracy, can kiss goodbye to dreams of becoming another global centre of high quality intellectual production.
