IIT Madras to convene Board of Students meeting to discuss APSC issue

Talks held between APSC representatives and Director-in-Charge of IIT Madras did not come to a finite solution

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras has decided to convene an emergency meeting of the Board of Students (BoS) at the earliest to discuss the demands put forward by the Ambedkar-Periyar Study Circle (APSC), including the re-recognising of APSC. The decision was taken today after a team of representatives of APSC met with K Ramamurthy, Director-in-charge of IIT Madras, while the meeting did not come to a finite solution to the issue.

"After further detailed discussions, it has been decided to convene an emergency meeting of the BoS at the earliest (later this week or early next week) acording to the convenience of the members of BoS and APSC team," said a press statement issued by the institute on Tuesday.

The organisation was derecognised by the institute last month, for allegedly violating the guidelines prescribed by the BoS which consists of all the elected student representatives.

Akhil Bharat, member of APSC, said that the IIT Madras administration stood by its earlier stand and said that the Student organisation to appear before the BoS. However, APSC has decided not to go to the meeting with BoS unless the organisation is re-recognised unconditionally, since the decision to derecognise was not taken with the consent of the BoS. He alleged that there is caste discrimination in the campus and there is no guideline for derecognition of student organisation.

As per the guidelines in force, the student bodies are not allowed to use the institute's name (IIT Madras) or any of its official entities in any capacity, to publicize their activities or garner support, without official approval, said the IIT Madras administration earlier. "This group has violated these guidelines while conducting their meeting. Normally, violation of these guidelines leads to temporary derecognition pending their presenting their stand to the Board of Students," it has said in a press statement earlier.

Student groups desiring to use the Institute's resources are required to be recognized and they are to follow guidelines prescribed by the Board of Students which consists of all the elected student representatives.

After discussions on June 2, the APSC team put forward demands including "re-recognising APSC, unconditional apology from the Dean (Students) for misuse of official power, overturn the undemocratic code of conduct which is against Article 19(A) of the Constitution of India, officially recognise all independent student bodies and allow them to express their social, economic and political views and provide democratic spaces and equal privileges like hall, IITM official mail account, permanent study-cum meeting room, space in IITM official domain for all independent student bodies."

It may be noted that the IIT Madras' derecognition of the student organisation came after the Union Ministry of Human Resource and Development sent a letter seeking the institute director's comment on the distribution of controversial posters and pamphlets in its campus.

The Ministry has issued a letter on May 15 addressing the director of IIT-M seeking the institution's comments on the distribution of controversial posters and pamphlets in the campus, creating hatred atmosphere among the students by one of the students' group namely Ambedkar-Periyar Study Circle, IIT- M (an initiative by IIT-M students).

The students' organisation claimed that the pamphlet had quotes criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his policies and the action against it was triggered by the Union government because of this. Following this, various political and regional parties including Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC), Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), Communist Party of India (CPI), Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI), Radical Students' Youth Front (RSYF) and Thanthai Periyar Dravida Kazhagam has come forward offering support to the APSC. These parties also conducted protest near the IIT Madras gate, and many were detained by the police for this.

The Union Ministry of HRD has earlier issued a statement that the action has been taken by IIT, Madras as per the guidelines of the Institute and the Ministry of Human Resource Development had nothing to do with this except for forwarding the complaint received to Director, IIT, Madras for comments.