Priyanka Tiwari
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Suspense crime, Digital Desk : The debate over the case of Ashoka University’s Professor Ali Khan Mahmudabad has escalated after his recent arrest and the subsequent social media outrage in May. University co-founder Sanjeev Bikhchandani’s tweets express disdain claiming the university has become “too much of a headache” in a leaked internal communication.
Bikhchandani in the email goes on to add that along with other co-founders Pramath Raj Sinha and Ashish Dhawan, they have given serious thought to relinquishing control of the university.
“Pramath, Ashish, and I had a serious discussion about the possibility of walking away. Ashoka has become too much of a headache. Is it worth the trouble?” he was quoted saying.
This was in response to an open letter from a university alumnus where they called out the lack of proactive response from the institute around the suggested arrest of the professor and underlined the lack of initiatives aimed at aiding the freedom of academic expression.
Understanding the Arrest
Professor Mahmudabad, head of the political science area at Ashoka University, was arrested on 18 May and charged under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita for causing disharmony between the communal and social framework following two FIRs being placed against him. His unilateral social media outburst on the 8th of May resulted in widespread legal action due to statement supporting military endeavors without warrant and casting symbolic representation of women and vocal minority portrayal.
Insights from the Co-founder about Institutional Liability
Bikhchandani was quite clear that a university cannot be held liable for the political utterances of faculty members. He wrote:
“In your private capacity, Ashoka is not obligated to politicically back you to post in a social media channel of your choice. You did not seek Ashoka's approval before making your social media posts; you cannot now bring it to Ashoka's doorstep and expect assistance."
He equally stressed that the bounds of academic freedom do not encompass social media political rants because those are simply expressions of a person’s freedom and not scholarship.
Governing Law and Human Rights Initiatives
On May 21 the Supreme Court granted Professor Mahmudabad interim bail but refused to stay the ongoing investigations. They instructed that the Special Investigation Team (SIT) provides progress updates and requested that the professor avoids commenting on this particular case while the investigation is ongoing.
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) also got involved undocumented after seeing news reports and claimed that this could potentially show the most basic level violation of civil rights.
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