‘Ashoka is boring, thank god’: University co-founder Sanjeev Bikhchandani on the resignation row

Ashoka University founder Sanjeev Bikhchandani sought to set the record straight after Newslaundry published a piece quoting a student who criticised it as a “capitalist institute” that “boasts about its left liberal values.”

Bikhchandani said that Ashoka University does not boast of left liberal values – it is merely an institute where students can study liberal arts. The founder and trustee at Ashoka University drew a distinction between left liberal values and liberal arts as he responded to the Newslaundry piece. “Left liberal values and studying subjects that constitute liberal arts are very different. You can be right of centre and still study liberal arts,” he wrote.

Ashoka University has been at the centre of a controversy regarding academic freedom after economics professor Sabyasachi Das was allegedly told to resign in August – days after he published a research paper on possible electoral manipulation by the ruling BJP in the 2019 polls.
Although the Economics Department demanded the reinstatement of Das and Pulpare Balakrishnan, another professor who resigned in protest, their demand was not met. The Economics Department and other departments at the university initially threatened to suspend classes until their demands were met, but three days later said that teaching would continue so as not to interfere with the welfare of students.

The Newslaundry piece pointed out how the university has not seen a single protest from its student body despite the row igniting a wider discussion on academic freedom in India.

Sanjeev Bikhchandani addressed the piece and the larger controversy surrounding Ashoka University in a post shared on X (formerly Twitter) this afternoon. He began his post with a direct quote from the Newslaundry piece in which an unnamed student said: “No matter how much Ashoka boasts about its left liberal values, but at the end of the day it is a capitalist institute…It cannot produce Bhagat Singhs or Umar Khalids.”