With US President Donald Trump hellbent on bringing Harvard University to heel—as well as several other Ivy League and top schools—successive salvos continue to reveal interesting facts. On Monday, he ranted about 30 per cent of Harvard’s student body being foreigners. Subsequent “fact-checking" showed that the actual figure was closer to 27 per cent—from 145 nations. Even so, it means well over a quarter of the student body of the best American university is not American.

Imagine if Indians woke up one day to find that one-fourth of those studying at IITs, IIMs, IISc, AIIMS, or any of the premier colleges are foreigners. What would be the consensus? Would there be pride in the fact that Indian universities are attracting the best brains from abroad, never mind if some Indians do not get a chance to benefit from the same facilities? Would Indians be overjoyed that those foreigners go on to bag the best jobs in the country too?

What would be the reaction of Indians if some very vocal foreign students also drove the agenda of the Indian universities, became the leaders of protests that stalled classes, and also openly indulged in politics, rather than stick to their academic goals? Would Indians be proud of the fact that foreign students were so involved in activities beyond what their visas envisaged? Would Indians be happy that the Indian education process was being regularly disrupted?

It is easy to be appalled at Trump’s supposed xenophobic moves to “isolate" the US education system from the midstream of international talent. After all, those universities have benefited not only from the intellectual capital of the world but also from their financial largesse. It seems suicidal to make the US jump off that gravy train. But there must be a significant latent groundswell of local resentment........

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