What makes an IIT stand apart from all other technical institutes of India? It’s the high class education facilities. Excellent teaching staff. And a sublime environment to learn and innovate. But Prof. C.V.R. Murty of IIT Jodhpur is killing it all.
The Director of IIT-Jodhpur seems to be on a hostile expedition to become the single owner of the institute. As a result of this, the students of this prestigious college are suffering miserably under his leadership/dictatorship.
The Director made sure that the college doesn’t see a single permanent faculty in 1.5 years. He has been responsible for the termination and resignation of some of the most brilliant professors of the institute. The attitude of the director has been termed ‘dictatorial’ by the students and they are no longer willing to jeopardize their careers under a dictator’s rule.
Every single student of the institute has joined the protest to dethrone C.V.R. Murty. Here is a copy of the letter undersigned by all the students sent to the director, demanding his immediate resignation.
And the list goes on to include the signature of all 700 students of the college.
When I asked one of the students about the current situation of college, he said, “It’s all very disheartening. We are sending bouquets, holding candle light marches, raising slogans, and every other thing possible, which can be done in a peaceful manner, but nothing substantial has happened till now. We are even boycotting the academics and if the situation doesn’t improve we will also stop co-operating with the management.”
On inquiring about the director’s reaction to all this, the student said, “The director is not ready to talk. He is not coming out in public and dealing with the situation. He is trying to threaten us to get back to normality or else he will take serious action against us. He even banned social networking websites in the campus for a day.”
The good thing is, the students look unbaffled by the situation, and are ready to take a stand for what is right.
It’s not just about one or two reasons why they want the director to be removed. There are many ways in which the director is completely ruining the college.
Following is the list of complaints from the UG students of the institute –
- Nepotism and Draconian Rules
The Administration recently passed a Code of Conduct for the students of IITJ, which prevents them from speaking to media, not just about the institute, but also on their opinions on ‘controversial topics’, a very hazy argument. Also, students cannot be affiliated to any political party, and are not allowed to participate in activities/summits of any political party. This takes away the very democratic right to choose and to make electoral choices.
- Faculty Crunch
Although IITJ had been facing a faculty crunch for a long time, faculty attrition has increased like never before under Prof Murty. Most faculty complain of internal politics, lack of freedom to work, and harassment as the reasons for leaving.
- Closing down of Innovation and Incubation Center
- New B. Tech. programmes conjured up ambiguously
- Closing down new undergraduate programs
- Personally Targeting those who Respond to him
- Centralization of power
Complaints from PG students –
- Exceptionally high rate of terminations and resignations of faculty and staff members at Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur.
- No transparency in terminations
- Lack of experts to continue the courses left unattended
- The policy of demolishing old structures
- Single point of decision making
- Hiding important facts
- False promises are made in meetings with students
- Student Harassment
- Partial Decisions:
- Research students are compelled to change their research topics/area multiple times throughout their Ph.D. tenure.
- Students who were promised by the Director to accompany their earlier supervisors for continuing their research are not relieved by the institute till date.
- Many research students are not having any proper sitting place where they can conduct their research and many of them have been forced to leave their previous sitting places.
- Indecent behavior of Prof. Murthy during student interactions.
- There is lack of equal and active participation of students and faculty in the academics and research related matters.
- Director IIT Jodhpur seems to be highly egoistic person who prefers to serve his own ego first rather than serving the institute interest.
This huge list of problems still hasn’t proved enough to get a resignation from C.V.R. Murty. And this was just an overview of it. If you get into the details of it, there are many shocking cases which clearly don’t reflect the working of an IIT. Some of them are –
#1 The case of Dr. Ravindra Arora, senior most faculty at IIT Jodhpur who was terminated and his salary for one month and 4 days withheld.
#2 Thoughts of Dr. Debabrata Pal, who resigned because he could not cope up with the filthy internal politics at IIT Jodhpur.
#3 An appeal from several prominent academicians to the Director, Prof CVR Murty expressing that termination of Dr. Satyabrata Adhikari, Assistant Professor was unjust, owing to his excellent academic credentials.
The students are completely agitated by seeing no response at all from the director. In reference to the same they also wrote a strong email to the administration, only to see it going in vain. Still no change has been inflicted. Here is a copy of the email where they expressed their pain and sadness about the ongoing situation –
STUDENTS IITJ <pgstudentsiitj@gmail.com> Fri, Apr 3, 2015 at 3:17 PM
To: Goverdhan Mehta <gmehta43@gmail.com>
Dear Sir,
The issue is of national importance as IIT is an institution that is run by tax payers’ money all over the country. We agree and completely understand your concern that we should not do anything which hampers our image as an Institution, but the problem is that we are tired of talking to Sir for last 1.5 years. Last year also, we raised similar issues in front of Sir by protestingogether. Following this, we – all 700 students talked to Sir in open door session in which the reason of all the issues were blamed on staff, faculty and other factors. We were also given assurance that actions will be taken on these, but it has been 1 year since then and still no action have been taken.
In December 2014 also, we reached out to you regarding issues with our PG students which later Sir addressed and still no action was taken by Sir. Whenever we approach him about the issues like those pertaining to abrupt termination of competent faculties, he transfers the responsibility solely on the review committee and BOG. Even in miniscule matters he never owns up and potrays them as BOG’s demands. Hence, we are coming to you for fulfilling our demands for the termination of the director.
We did not mean to offend everyone, but we have lost faith in talking to Sir and we feel that by talking to him we will only get a diplomatic response with no action.
We strongly feel that our Institute cannot survive under Director Sir’s leadership and all the members will suffer a lot.
Yours Sicerely,
All IIT Jodhpur Students.
With each passing day, the protest is only getting stronger. All these budding minds need right now is the support of the nation. Ignoring the dictatorship of an individual over an institute cannot be allowed at any cost. IITs have been a symbol of excellence for past many years, and it should not get hampered because of just one man.
Students getting tormented like this in IIT–Jodhpur is a very sad sight for the whole nation. We all must stand by them and make sure that it is taken care off before it gets any worse.
Share this article with your friends with the hashtag #dictatorfreeIITJ. Let us all together Rise for the students of IIT Jodhpur.
