NEW DELHI, Feb. 5 -- In recent times, academic freedom in universities across India has deteriorated. We read how the dissenting opinions were crushed in varsities - public universities such as the Central University, Hyderabad, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi University, Aligarh Muslim University, Jamia Milia Islamia, Jadavpur University, Visva Bharati, and private universities like Ashoka University and the Symbiosis International University, Pune, to name a few. These universities were in the news for stifling free academic discourse within their campuses.

However, what is still more disturbing is how free expression of academic views is suppressed by an elite institution of India - the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay. ...