Universities must uphold liberal values – Vice-president

Indian Vice-President Hamid Ansari said last weekend universities must uphold liberal values and respect dissent, a month after violent protests erupted at a university in the capital Delhi over a speech by a student accused of sedition, reports Reuters.

Addressing students at a university in Punjab, Ansari said commitments to the right to dissent should be revisited at a time when the "value and scope of academic freedom" was being called into question. "Recent events in our own country have shown that there is much confusion about what a university should or should not be. The freedom of our universities has been challenged by narrow considerations of what is perceived to be 'public good'."

Ansari appeared to be referring to violence at the University of Delhi last month involving Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, or ABVP, a pro-Bharatiya Janata Party student union. According to media reports, ABVP protested against inviting the student to give a speech at a literary seminar and violent clashes broke out.
Full report on the Reuters site