A TISS Guwahati professor expresses anxiety over potential repercussions for speaking in class, framing it as repression. The author argues this is not repression but a necessary accountability, asserting that classrooms are public intellectual spaces requiring transparency and professional responsibility, not ideological indulgence. The article criticizes the tendency to foreground caste in student protests over alleged misconduct, suggesting this framing is a 'banalisation of caste' that damages public discourse and erodes understanding.