Thursday, December 08, 2011

Harvard Drops Subramanian Swamy

Harvard University faculty voted on Tuesday to drop two summer economics courses taught by Subramanian Swamy in response to a July piece by the Janata Party politician that made sweeping remarks against Muslims and proposed depriving them of the vote unless they declared their families were converts from Hinduism.

Some students at his alma mater Harvard University, accused him of stoking communalism and circulated a petition calling on the university to fire him and publicly repudiate his remarks. Two PhD students, Umang Kumar and Sanjay Pinto, started an online petition asking for the removal of courses taught by Dr Swamy, which received more than 450 signatures from students and faculty. Adam Kissel, on behalf of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, wrote in a letter to Harvard that a disciplinary investigation against him would be inappropriate for an academic institution dedicated to intellectual freedom, represented a threat to free speech, and could lead to self-censorship by other faculty members.

In response to the petition, Donald H. Pfister, dean of Harvard Summer School, stated that the school would "give this matter our serious attention", and decided to stand by its instructor. On Tuesday, 6 December, 2011, the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences voted to exclude Subramanian Swamy's summer school courses from its catalog. The Op-Ed was considered more to be a case of hate speech rather than free speech. 'I was persuaded... that the views expressed in Dr Swamy's op-ed piece amounted to incitement of violence instead of protected political speech,' Philosophy Department Chair Sean D Kelly wrote in an e-mail to the Crimson. Comparative Religion Professor Diana Eck said, "Swamy's op-ed [piece] clearly crosses the line by demonizing an entire religious community and calling for violence against their sacred places". The Faculty of Arts and Sciences voted with an "overwhelming majority" to remove the courses taught by Mr. Swamy.

Dr. Swamy is a widely known public figure in India having been elected Member of Parliament five times (1974-99) and held Cabinet positions in the Union Government twice, first as a Minister for Commerce, Law and Justice (1990-91) and later as Chairman with Cabinet rank of the Commission on Labor Standards and International Trade (1994-96). He also worked as Assistant Economic Affairs Officer, United Nations Secretariat, New York in 1963 and as Member of India’s Planning Commission (1990-91).

Dr. Swamy has a long and continuing academic association with Harvard University. He was awarded a doctorate in Economics by Harvard University in 1965 based on his research with two Nobel Laureates Simon Kuznets and Paul A Samuelson. Dr. Swamy has also jointly authored with Professor Samuelson a path breaking study on Index Number Theory. Upon completing his Ph.D., the author joined the faculty of economics at Harvard (in 1964) and from then on, he has taught at the Department of Economics for a total period of about 12 years.

From 1969 to 1991, Dr.Swamy was Professor of Economics at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi from which post he resigned upon becoming Union Commerce, Law and Justice Minister. He also served on the Board of Governors of the IIT, Delhi (1977-80), and on the Council of IITs (1980-82).

He is the President of the Janata Party since 1990 which party was founded by Jayaprakash Narayan in 1977 in the aftermath of the Emergency. 

 

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