INDIA

Call to end government interference in universities
Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Sitaram Yechury last week castigated the Bharatiya Janata Party for trying to suppress dissent and impose their idea of a “theocratic, fascistic Hindu Rashtra” on the country, and asked the government to "stop interfering" in universities which have been set up under central laws, reports Press Trust of India.Amid a raging controversy over the suicide by a Dalit student and arrests at Jawaharlal Nehru University, or JNU, he also demanded the setting up of a house committee to examine the latest developments in various central universities, while initiating the debate in Rajya Sabha on the situation arising in the central institutions of higher learning, including JNU and Hyderabad University.
Yechury said an effort was being made to metamorphosise India, a secular democratic republic, into a "theocratic, fascistic Hindu Rashtra". Seeking stern action against all anti-national activities, Yechury said the government was trying to suppress dissent and asked it not to castigate the entire student community and the institutions.
Full report on The Economic Times site