‘Threatening slogans’: IIT Delhi Director warns protesters of disciplinary action

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The protesting students said they held a peaceful march on campus on the intervening night of Thursday and Friday. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

IIT Delhi Director Rangan Banerjee on Friday threatened disciplinary action against student protesters for “disrupting the peaceful functioning of the campus, including residential areas, classes, academic and other activities”.

In an e-mail to all students, the Director said the institute has been engaging with their representatives in good faith. “Unfortunately, the situation escalated on the night of Thursday... from 10.30 p.m. to 12.30 a.m., a group of protesters extended their agitation into the campus residential zones,” it stated.

Mr. Banerjee said they resorted to “unsavoury, humiliating and threatening language in their slogans”. This, he said, compromised the “safety, privacy, and peace of faculty members and their families, including young children and elderly dependents”.

The students have been protesting against “systemic issues”, which they claim led to the deaths by suicide of eight students over the past 30 months, including a 31-year-old MSc student on August 22. They have sought an impartial probe, resignations of two officials for “insensitive remarks” over the incident, and ex gratia of ₹1 crore for the deceased’s family.

On the intervening night of Thursday and Friday, students held a march on campus to reiterate their demands, which they claimed was peaceful. They also alleged that they were being profiled on Friday night, with unknown persons recording their videos without consent.

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