The battle between David Harvard and Goliath Trump is a part of a larger war between liberalism and fascism | Vijay Kumar

As expected, a US federal judge, Allison Burroughs, an Obama appointee, extended the status quo order even against the decision of the Trump administration barring Harvard from enrolling international students. Not content with freezing of 2.2 billion endowment funds of Harvard, one of the oldest and storied Ivy League institutions in the United States, and most prestigious Universities of the world, the Trump administration has further intensified its attack by issuing flurry of retributive orders ranging from barring the Harvard to enrol foreign students, which is its vital pipeline for academic excellence and major source of revenue to cancellation of SEVIS certification. There are 6800 international students in Harvard which constitutes 27% of its student strength. The temporary pause order by the Federal Court in favour of Harvard has made Trump administrative more vindictive, as evident from cancellation of SEVIS (Students and Exchange Visitors Information System) certification issued by the Department of Homeland Security, and the message sent by Marco Rubio, Secretary of State, to all US Embassies in all parts of the world to process the social profiles of Visa Applications of the students aspiring to come to US for study. The escalation in attack on Harvard is further compounded by the threat to withdraw the Tax Exemption. Harvard receives huge donations from its alumni, and once tax exemption is withdrawn, the donors would hesitate in donating, and the resultant squeezing of funds will cripple the research with extremely fateful consequences for knowledge, innovations — indeed even for the future of the US and its prestige and power— sustained by ivy league institutions, who are flag bearer of its famed soft power.

So far, Harvard is fighting, and courts are halting the order, but how long Harvard can battle with an autocratic president and his MAGA base is pretty uncertain. The lever of power unmistakably rests with the administration, as it alone has the competency to decide who can come to America. Regardless of the outcome of the court