Possibly enthused with the order for 3,500 khadi uttaria s or stoles that IIT Bombay has placed for its convocation, scheduled on August 13, the ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises issued a statement on Monday morning announcing the order. The ministry statement said that after Gujarat University, IIT Bombay would promote khadi, and “It is a significant development and this shows that Khadi is gaining ground in every sphere of life.” The statement quoted IIT Bombay director, Prof. Devang Khakhar, as saying: “Khadi is our national symbol and we have adopted khadi to inculcate feeling of nationalism in the students.”
Prof. Khakhar was surprised to hear this. He told The Hindu that the quote was “not correct. I have not spoken to anyone. I have no idea about this. I don’t know where this news item has come from.” When told that he was quoted in a government press statement, he said, “IIT is not part of the government.” He, however, did say that the khadi order may have been placed, but he was not part of that decision.
IIT officials took great pains to explain that their decision to go khadi was not politically motivated, and was not at the behest of a politician.
“There is no ‘decision’ or khadi directive,” said Prof Narayan Rangaraj, dean of academic programmes, IIT Bombay. “We have had a white dress code for over 10 to 15 years, and we get uttaria s in different colours, such as red and blue, for different categories of students. The stoles are bought every year, and this time the purchase department simply thought of getting it from Khadi Bhandar in Mumbai at a government-approved rate. It is a routine thing.”
The convocation outfit is kurta and pyjama, with an uttaria with the IIT logo embroidered on it. Officials said the change of fabric wasn’t seen as a big deal and that students were not told about the decision as it wasn’t as a major change in the scheme of things.
