The Indian Institute of Technology – Madras (IIT-M) has decided to convene an emergency meeting of the Board of Students to discuss the recent de-recognition of one of its student bodies, which has sparked a national controversy.
The meeting has been scheduled for June 5, said members of the Ambedkar Periyar Study Circle (APSC) who met the institute’s director-in-charge on Tuesday, as IIT-M director Bhaskar Ramamurthy is out of the country.
While a meeting has been convened there is no shift in the institution’s position on the issue, according to student-members. The IIT-M management has not responded to APSC members’ demand to re-recognise the study circle.
“The management should lift the unconstitutional ban on the study circle and the dean of students should apologise,” said APSC member Akhil Bharathan.
Prior to APSC members’ meeting with the director-in-charge on Tuesday, nearly 30 members and supporters of the APSC held a protest on the campus, raising slogans against the IIT-M management and the Ministry of Human Resource Development that sought the institution’s comments on an anonymous complaint letter, before the dean of students wrote to the group informing members about the decision to de-recognise the group for “misuse of privileges.”
Police personnel deployed outside the IIT-M gate stopped media crew and said the press was not allowed inside. When contacted, IIT-M officials told journalists that they had left no such instruction with the police.
Amid contradicting messages from the police and institute officials, mediapersons stood outside the gate for nearly two hours until APSC members came outside the campus to give interviews. There was considerable police presence on the campus that looked empty, as hundreds of students are away on summer vacation.
Meanwhile, police arrested over 180 protestors — including members of the Revolutionary Students' Youth Federation — outside the IIT-M gate where they raised slogans in support of the APSC. At 10.30 a.m., agitations began on Sardar Patel Road outside the IIT-M out gate, with over 100 RSYF members present. The police team on vigil forced the protestors into police vans, even as traffic bottlenecks developed in the area.
Members of the Students Federation of India also staged a protest atop the flyover opposite the IIT-M. Police arrested and removed them from the spot. The protests went on till 2 p.m. with a few political parties also joining the agitation against the IIT management. The arrested were lodged at a community hall nearby and later released, police sources said.
(Additional reporting by Petlee Peter)
