A faculty and staff group of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur has threatened to go on a fast unto death and launch a legal battle for the 86 professors who have been served show-cause notices. To that extend, more than 100 professors proceeded to start a sit-in protest in front of the institute’s administrative offices on Wednesday. Some protesters had placards and black badges asking for an urgent intervention by the chairman of the board of governors.
“We have been writing to the chairman in a bid to get his assistance. The sit-in started on Wednesday, and if our demand is not met, we will proceed to a hunger strike. They have also stated that they will launch a legal battle in the Calcutta High Court soon, which will be initiated in the first week of next year,” said a protesting faculty member on the condition of anonymity.
This issue has been ongoing for months, albeit thinly veiled tension between the faculty and the administration. September this year, IIT Kharagpur, through the Indian Institute of Technology Teachers’ Association (IITTA), accused the director Virendra Kumar Tewar,i who is set to serve until January 2025, of favouring relatives in faculty appointments, arbitrary hiring and firing and not fulfilling a pledge to set up a multi-super-speciality hospital and trying to reclaim amounts from professors as unlawful. The letter also revealed a poor relationship between the institute and the community in the surrounding neighbourhood.
Letters were written to the director, the board of governors, and the chairman, but no action was taken, and IITTA made a formal letter to the Union government urging a new director with a reputation for governors.
IIT administration came up with their rebuttal in November; they suspended the IITTA office, and the president and the general secretary served show-cause notices. When the faculty members called for the removal of these notices, 86 other professors were given similar ones.
The faculty now demands change and is saying something and has demanded fair and transparent governance and is threatening to do something more if the demands are not met.
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