Through the course of a long and illustrious political career, former Finance Minister Arun Jaitley also served as a Minister of Defence, Information and Broadcasting, Law and Justice, and Corporate Affairs.
Decades prior to donning these important hats, he is remembered as having played an instrumental role, as a Delhi University student, in getting all his peers the right to vote in the University elections. Reflecting on his time as a DU student, he also once called himself the “first Satyagrahi” against the Emergency.
If Jaitley, however, was a present-day student at the South Asian University (SAU) — his Satyagraha would have perhaps been quelled even before it began. His glorious political career stubbed before it could flicker to life.
Why?
In a reported “undertaking” that the university allegedly expects its students to sign, SAU asks its students to "declare" that they would "neither join any agitation or strike nor participate in any activity that has a “tendency to disturb peace and tranquility of academic environment” on the campus.
This undertaking is said to be a part of the admission guidelines for SAU's 2023-24 academic session. What this means is that if you are hoping to join the university this year, you have to promise to not participate in any agitation or strike during your time there. If the word “agitation” is allowed a broad berth of interpretation it would mean any protest, any Satyagraha.