Lone teacher to sign Kashmir petition quits Ashoka University

DR RAJENDRAN Narayanan, the only teacher at Ashoka University who signed a petition which condemned the violence over militant Burhan Wani’s death and called for a plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir, has resigned from the Sonepat institution’s mathematics department citing “ethical reasons”.

Narayanan quit on December 15, a day before the semester ended. The resignation was accepted by the university’s governing body within two days.

Narayanan’s decision followed the resignations of two members of the administrative staff — Saurav Goswami, deputy manager of academic affairs, and Adil Mushtaq Shah, programme manager of academic affairs — which had sparked a debate over curbs on freedom of speech on campus.

Of the 88 signatories, Narayanan, Shah and Goswami were the only three employees who had endorsed the Kashmir petition in July 2016.

Reached for comment, Narayanan confirmed he had left the university. “I resigned on ethical grounds. There were 88 people who signed that letter. Two (signatories) were from nonteaching staff and one was a faculty member. The two nonteaching staff members quit last year. I have tried to understand why that resignation happened and I haven’t got any concrete answers. Either I have got silence or I have got hazy responses from the university.”

“I feel that if a ‘crime’ has been committed, then everybody who committed the crime should face the same consequences, irrespective of their status or position. It should not happen that you and I do the same thing and because I have a slightly more privileged access to justice, I’m let off, but you face the consequences for the exact same crime. That to me is not acceptable, at least in a place that

I resigned on ethical grounds, says Narayanan