Professional Students

AT THE OUTSET, and more by way of a disclaimer, let me say that I don’t recall ever having met or known Ranjani Srinivasan, the former doctoral student of Columbia University who has fled to Canada after her US visa was peremptorily cancelled. Srinivasan is understood to be an Indian passport holder, but apart from the fact that she completed her first degree at CEPT University in Ahmedabad, the media has divulged absolutely nothing of her India connections.

This has struck me as rather strange because the moment a desi— as Indian Americans are known as— acquires either fame or notoriety, the inclination of the media is to seek out that person’s parents, and failing that, his/her second cousin and spin out a story. The vernacular media does this more readily than the so-called national media. Curiously, in the first case of a person who gave away her cat and allegedly self-deported to Canada with a friend, there has been complete radio silence. This has prompted the wicked people to draw their own conclusions about a lady who has her own personal pronoun and appears to have taken an inordinately long time to complete her doctorate despite securing some of the most prized scholarships available to Indians.

Clearly, there are a handful of very clever young Indians who are inclined to be professional students. They enjoy the carefree and liberating environment of the college campus and prefer it to the competitive outside world. Presumably, moving from one fellowship to another and delaying the completion of a degree also had some positive implications for an individual’s visa status in pre- Trump America.

It is difficult to be certain if Srinivasan was one of these professional students. Unless we get to know more details of her family background and her connections in India, it is darned difficult to answer the questions that come to mind readily. Was she the entitled daughter of someone who occupies a high position in India? Anecdotal evidence indicates that the best scholarships available to Indians tend to be cornered by the sons and daughters of people with influence, usually top bureaucrats. Anecdotal evidence also indicates that these bright young things from entitled backgrounds tend to veer sharply to the left of the political spectrum. In recent times some have become completely woke, like the lady under the spotlight of controversy who demands a bespoke personal pronoun. Till more details of Srinivasan’s background and activities emerge, we can only fall back on speculation and conspiracy theories that could well be a hundred miles away from the truth.

Needless to say, the reason why Srinivasan got her university enrolment cancelled and her US visa withdrawn had little to do with her background. If the US authorities are to be believed, she was an active participant in the disgraceful protests at Columbia University, some of which ended up in violence. They were disgraceful for two reasons.

First, they took place in the immediate aftermath of the attacks on innocent Israeli civilians by Hamas, and led to the deaths of some 1,200 people that included hundreds of young folks who were enjoying a music festival. For students to celebrate the mass murder of fellow youngsters was nothing short of outrageous. No amount of political sophistry can justify support for a murderous organisation.

Second, the demonstrations at Columbia specifically targeted Jewish students. They were harassed, intimidated and even told to go back to Poland. The demonstrators were not directing their ire at the Zionist state in abstraction; they were plain and simple anti-Semitic. What would the reaction of do-gooders have been if some extreme-Right body in the colleges went on the rampage against Muslim students? The behaviour of the protesters at Columbia crossed the bounds of acceptable political dissent that is part and parcel of university life. Every one of those involved should be punished, as they have been with expulsions and suspensions.

As things stand at present, apart from the professional Trump baiters in academia and the liberal professions—or those who tend to be supportive of the woke inclinations of their pampered children in the West—there has been very little sympathy for Srinivasan in India.

In recent times we have watched the campuses in the US transform themselves from well-endowed citadels of reflection and excellence to monster factories. The twisted Left culture that produced the likes of Srinivasan triggered a vicious backlash from ordinary Americans and contributed immeasurably to Donald Trump’s election victory last November. The Americans are cleaning up their country, and if some of our citizens were contributing to the fouling of the environment, they had better be removed.

AmericaDonald Trumpimmigration lawIndian AmericansRanjani SrinivasanUS universities