Indian Institute of Technology-Kharagpur (IIT-KGP) has issued a notice barring its employees from speaking to the media, quoting from the Institute’s Conduct Rules.
The notice was issued recently by the Registrar of IIT-KGP and it has noted that some of the employees are causing “embarrassment” to the Institute by talking to the press. An internal communication from the Dean’s office has also advised the faculty to “seek permission” for participating in any webinar or video conference.
‘Causing embarrassment’
“…a few cases are reported in the media which may have the effect of an adverse criticism of the policies or action of the Institute or which is causing embarrassment in the relations between the Institute and the Central Government/any State Government/any other Institute or organization or members of the public,” the notice noted.
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Quoting from Conduct Rules, the notice indicated that “no employee shall…own wholly or in part or conduct or participate in the editing or managing of any newspaper or other periodical publications” unless allowed by the IIT authority. Neither can an employee participate in “radio broadcast or contribute any article or write any letter either anonymously or in the name of any other person” to the media.
However, they can publish — without any sanction — about their scientific works in “journals of repute”.
The employees have also been told not to engage in any “adverse criticism of any current policy or action” of the government institute, which is “capable of embarrassing” the relations between IIT-KGP and the government, the notice indicated.
The order is seen as a response to recent media reports over soem months critical of actions by authorities at IIT-KGP, including an address by Director V.K. Tiwari from the live page of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the students’ wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.
Reports related to the timing of the lockdown in the campus and asking the students to vacate the hostel also came in for criticism from a section of the press. Some students had also questioned the institute’s decision to shut down the hostels in the middle of June and not earlier. The gag order comes in this background, the employees said.
