Politics at IIT

The Ambedkar Periyar Student Circle at the IIT, Madras, has been derecognised for spreading “hatred” against the Prime Minister. It published a pamphlet reproducing the speech of a Dravidian university academic, R Vivekananda Gopal, on Dr Ambedkar in which the Modi government was accused of following a “Hindutva agenda”, “assisting multinational corporates to loot Mother India” and “communally polarising the people by the ban on cow slaughter, ‘ghar wapsi’ and promoting Vedas”. Someone sent a complaint to the HRD Ministry, which forwarded it to the IIT . The action taken against the student group has sparked protests and debates. The Congress and the Left parties have seized the issue for making political capital out of it. 

It was a controversy the Modi government could very well do without. Why should an institute as prestigious as an IIT act on an anonymous complaint? Why should the HRD Ministry forward it to the IIT? Had the ministry thrown the complaint into the dustbin, the matter would have ended there. But then the HRD Minister has a talent for creating opportunities for keeping herself in the limelight. Her frequent interference in the affairs of autonomous IITs, IIMs and universities has created more problems than she can handle. Her attempts at “saffronisation” of education and encouragement of Hindutva elements in institutes of higher education have attracted attention.      

Since the rise in the academic world now depends on how well you carry forward the Parivar agenda, the IIT Dean was perhaps just trying to endear himself to the minister in Delhi. He did not care to uphold the autonomy of his own institute, stand for free speech and expression, or respect the students' right to dissent. Students these days don't restrict themselves to the given syllabus. They react to larger issues around them, mostly through social media. It is a happy sign that they value their freedom.