Today, Huffington
Post reported that the IIT Madras management took down an article from their student blog, ‘The
Fifth Estate’, before putting up a heavily edited version back online. The original
blog, on depression and suicides at IITs, was heavily critical of the IIT
system, which seems to have been toned down in the revised version.
This isn’t
the first brush that IIT Madras has had, between students and management, in
2015. Back in June, the Ambedkar Periyar Study Circle, a student group primarily
formed with Dalit members, was banned since someone felt that they were
critical of the Narendra Modi government. After backlashes that targeted nearly
everyone from the IIT Madras management onwards, to HRD Minister Smriti Irani
& Modi himself, the ban was revoked with some supervision in place.
As a matter
of fact, IITM isn’t the only Chennai based institute that has faced backlash. Lately,
Sri Sairam Engineering College, Chennai, has been in the news for all the wrong
reasons. First, an image that went viral listed a set of 14 rules for female students, rules that would have put the
college back in colonial times, earning them massive hatred across social
media. The college decried the list as fake, but a quick glance of existing
rules on their own website proved that at least two rules were true.
If that
weren’t enough, early this month, ex-students of the college put up a video alleging physical torture, sexual abuse, and violence by the campus director. The
severity of the allegations led students to protest, which led to Anna
University initiating a probe and firing the campus director. The sexist and
orthodox ideas of the management, though, continue.
It is quite
surprising that such issues – highhanded attitudes, colonial rules, continue to
plague a metropolis like Chennai in the 21st century. While these are
only two examples of how colleges in Chennai are veering towards a
student-management battle, it seems they are not the only ones. Are there
similar battles going in in colleges in your city? Let us know in the comments.