Prof. T.J. Joseph was attacked by a bunch of thugs, allegedly because of a provocative question in his exam caused offence. In that barbaric attack, they chopped off the professor's right hand.
Police have arrested a couple of people belonging to a radical Islamist outfit.
The story is scary in itself; but Dilip poses some questions that are even scarier:
What I do not understand about the news:
Why the college management "apologised".
Why the Kerala government saw fit to issue "instruction" that the professor should be suspended.
Why the college followed the government's instruction and suspended him.
Why the police lodged a case against the professor.
Clearly "freedom of expression", especially its value in an educational institution, is a foreign phrase to all these people.
P.Z. Myers has a link-filled post on Atrocity in Kerala. See also Josh Newtonn's post: The chopped arm & the dissent of structure; and the editorial in Deccan Herald: Barbaric Act.
It has something to do with the so called minority politics, which every political party (including the left) endorse in Kerala. The "freedom of expression of the Prof" was used as a weapon to attack him. He didnt get enough protection from the state, the collage and his community (because he was a leftist). But I must also add that his question was equally provocative. It involved a fictitious conversation between God and Prophet in which God calls the latter as a "son of a dog".
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