Speaking about the police action in Jawahar Lal Nehru University, Shashi Tharoor said that "this is not the India of the future that we are trying to build'.
Congress leader Shashi Tharoor today said that the government should not interfere much in the functioning of universities after a JNU student was arrested on charges of Sedition.
Mr Tharoor such educational institutions should be treated as autonomous.
"My personal view is that we shouldn't have too much government interference in universities. Even as minister, I felt our education system is over-regulated and under-governed," Mr Tharoor told the Press Trust of India on the sidelines of 'Make in India Week' in .
"We should leave universities as autonomous places," Mr Tharoor said, adding that as a minister he would not have written to the Vice Chancellor about matters related to disciplining or punishments.
The former Minister of State for Human Resource Development was reacting to the controversy at JNU that erupted last week over holding an event on the campus in favour of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru. During the event, anti-India slogans were alleged to have been raised, while denouncing the hanging of Guru.
Subsequently, JNU Students' Union president Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested on sedition charges, following complaints by BJP MP Maheish Girri and ABVP, affiliated to the ruling BJP.
Expressing his disappointment on incidents in Hyderabad and JNU, Mr Tharoor said, "This is not the India of the future that we are trying to build".
"We want an India where students grow up in an academic environment of hope, an academic environment where they have freedom to think and express themselves and to disagree," he said.
Mr Tharoor said "Disagreement is the essence of democracy", and the we should let them have that.