Sir — This refers to the editorial, “Snub has boomeranged” (March 8). Many distinguished persons like Union Minister Shashi Tharoor and Rom Somers, president of US-India Business Council have said that Wharton was wrong in cancelling Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s address. Mr Somers even wondered whether freedom of speech was declining in academic circles.
Unfortunately, even in a country like the US, prejudices and preconceived notions are displacing debates in intellectual circles. The professors responsible for the cancellation of Mr Modi’s address should ponder over whether they are not curtailing the freedom of students to think. Students missed an opportunity to grill Mr Modi on various issues agitating their minds, including the 2002 violence.