IT News
Mumbai, 31 Jan 2020
IIT, Bombay has banned anti-national activities by students within campus and has advised students that the undesirable activities will not be allowed even if faculty is part of the gathering.
The 15 point circular issued via e mail by IIT B Director Subhasis Chaudhuri on 28 January 2020, states that they should not indulge in giving speeches, play music or any other activities that would disturb the peace of the hostel environment. Besides, the pamphlets, leaflets can be distributed or posters pasted only with the permission of the Hostel Council or the Dean of Students’ Affairs.
Point 10 of the internal mail states that “Residents shall not participate in any anti-national, anti-social and or any other undesirable activities.” The internal mail says that it is aimed at reiterating and highlighting hostel rules that need to be strictly implemented.
Earlier, IIT Bombay director in an open-house speech had told students that they should refrain from taking part in such protests inside the campus. He had said that the students should express their political views outside the campus and never use the institute’s name while voicing such views. IIT Bombay is funded by the government with public funds and the institute is apolitical, he had said.
The 15 point circular has been issued in the backdrop of some IIT Bombay students and faculty organising a candle march in solidarity with students of the Jamia Millia Islamia University and the Jawaharlal Nehru University where widespread violence was witnessed over the past month.
Besides some students are also running a face book page “ IIT Bombay for Justice” . The page boldly carries a photo of some students, posing with a placard saying ‘Reclaim the Republic’. According to reports, this page is being run by the left oriented students affiliated to “Ambedkar Periyar Study Circle”. These students were in the forefront in agitations against CAA/NRC. Even the comedian Varun Grover had participated in the anti CAA/NRC agitations and had recited a poem in Hindi titled “Hum Kagaz Nahi Dikhayenge” (we will not show documents to authorities for CAA/NRC).
Those attached to “ IIT Bombay for Justice” were also busy preparing posters protesting the sedition charges filed against Sharjeel Iman, by several states for an anti-CAA speech he delivered at Aligarh Muslim University on January 16. Later Imam, a PhD student in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), was arrested from his village” Kako in Jehanabad district of Bihar” on 28 January, Tuesday. He was a student at IIT, Bombay between 2006 and 2011. He pursued a dual degree in Computer Science and Engineering and graduated in 2011.
However the national sentiment was also quite apparent at IIT, Bombay when the students and teachers in large number took out 4.5 km long march carrying a long tricolour on Republic Day. The theme of the march was “IIT Bombay for Nation Building”. Besides, over 1,000 residents of IIT Bombay rallied in support of the institute’s director’s call for non-politicisation of the campus.
