The Jawaharlal Nehru University has allegedly asked eminent historian Romila Thapar to submit her CV to decide if she should continue as professor emeritus.
JNU registrar Pramod Kumar wrote to the 87-year-old historian last month asking her to submit her CV so that a committee appointed by the university could evaluate her work, The Telegraph reported.
Expressing their shock over the varsity's move, a senior faculty told Telegraph, "This is purely politically motivated action. Prof. Thapar is a strong critic of policies of privatisation of education, erosion of autonomy of institutions and crushing of dissent by institutions, including JNU".
Thapar, a critic of the present Narendra Modi government, is an emeritus professor with the varsity.
An emeritus professor does not receive any financial support but an office to work from and academic benefits.
Thapar was appointed to the post in 1993 after teaching at the varsity between 1970 and 1991. Only select academics of international repute are chosen for the post.
The varsities' decision has also irked several personalities across the country who took to Twitter to express their anger.