Murli Manohar Joshi, Human Resource Development minister in the BJP-led NDA government between 1999-2004, may not have been a shining example of liberal behaviour — his battle with the IIMs over autonomy, his history textbook-rewriting drew their fair share of criticism. But when it came to US Fulbright scholars visiting India, the NDA’s track record makes the UPA’s look positively illiberal.

And this at a time when India faced US sanctions after the Pokharan tests, almost a world away from the current New Delhi-Washington engagement.

Between 1999 and 2003, there was not one case of Fulbright visa rejection. No scholar was asked by the NDA government to change his or her research subject except one in 2003-04. Even that was more semantic than anything else: New York scholar Rachel J Anthes changed her subject from “From sacred whore to sex worker” to “The Sacred Feminine.” And she was allowed to do research in the institution of her choice, Sanskriti Pratishthan, New Delhi. US officials say that visa clearances came within the stipulated time-frame of three months or, at worst, four months.

Some of the subjects that the NDA raised no objections to: study of Hindu religious reform movement, ethics of religion and politics, local roots of religious nationalism, Brahma Kumaris and globalisation, religion in campuses, labour diaspora in the Middle-East and Brahmin authority and patronage.

In sharp contrast, between 2004 and 2007 — during the UPA regime — there have been 23 rejections, delays have ranged from eight months to 21 months. Subjects the UPA government didn’t allow include Left politics in Maharashtra, Islamic feminism, Muslim women’s perceptions of the role of women in society, ethno-botany in India; the “many faces of Meenakshi temple,” language ideologies in Mumbai schools and even a film on the life of a Muslim girl. Rejected, 10 scholars didn’t bother to re-apply, seven are still waiting for the government’s approval after they changed their subjects.

... contd.