Former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan (Express photo by Nirmal Harindran/Files)
Former governor of the Reserve Bank of India, Raghuram Rajan, and Anand Mahindra, chairman of Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd, on Friday said that it is important to create universities as they are “safe houses where debate and discussions take place which can take the society forward”. “We need to learn to respect universities as places where ideas are debated, where you don’t shout down the other side or call them anti-national,” Rajan said at the launch of Krea University, a liberal arts university, set up by India’s leading academicians and a few corporates.
“Any university will court controversy but the point is that controversy should be protected… Sometimes, ideas that are unappealing come forward and are shot down. I think the process is good and over time these ideas become mainstream. women’s rights is something that was debated in the 19th century, which over time we have come to accept,” said Rajan on the recent controversies pertaining to several universities, including the JNU and the Ashoka University.
“Universities are important because they are safe houses, because nobody can attack them, because by the act of sponsoring them, you do create conversations in the society”, said Mahindra, governing council member of Krea.
Krea University, located in Sri City near Chennai, is a private university set up under the Andhra Pradesh Private Universities Act, 2016. It will offer four-year courses in humanities and sciences. The governing council includes N Vaghul, philanthropist and former banker, N Seshasayee, former chairman of Infosys, Sajjan Jindal, managing director of JSW Group, among others. Rajan will be an advisor to the council.