Priyanka slams BJP over Arvind Subramanian's exit from Ashoka University

Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra attacked the ruling BJP on Thursday after economist Arvind Subramanian resigned as a professor of the Ashoka University and accused the saffron party of aiming to put knowledge in fetters.

She said the BJP is saying in West Bengal that it wants to create a "Sonar Bangla" while attacking the original spirit of Rabindranath Tagore.

"They go to Bengal and say that they will make 'Sonar Bangla' but are attacking Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore's original spirit. Gurudev Tagore had said, 'Where the mind is without fear...where knowledge is free.' The BJP's aim is to tie knowledge in fetters, to instill fear in the minds of people," the Congress general secretary said in a tweet in Hindi.

She also tagged a news report about Subramanian resigning as a professor at the Ashoka University, based in Haryana's Sonipat.

Two days after political commentator Pratap Bhanu Mehta resigned as a professor from the Ashoka University, Subramanian put in his papers on Thursday and the faculty members wrote to the vice chancellor expressing deep anguish over the developments.

Subramanian, the former chief economic advisor, had joined the university as a professor in the Department of Economics in July last year.