100 IIT-Bombay students stage protest against ‘authoritarian’ hostel rules

MUMBAI: About 100 students from IIT-Bombay, under the banner IIT-Bombay for Justice, staged a protest against the hostel rules that were sent to them on January 29. The students protested with a cloth tied on their mouths, in a symbolic way to state that the institute is against their freedom of speech. The ‘new’ hostel rules sent by the dean of students’ affairs had asked students to not indulge in anti-social, anti-national and undesirable activities. The students have sought revocation of the rules in their letter.

The students submitted a rebuttal letter, quoting several court rulings which give citizens the right to protest, to the director. After gathering in front of the School of Management, they walked peacefully by sticking cloths and tapes on their mouths and placards in their hands to the director’s office to hand over the letter. Security personnel gathered in numbers and blocked the students from entering the main building. The students then sat down at the entrance of the main building.

In their letter, the students said, “This authoritarian mindset by the administration to control student activities goes against the ideals of equality, liberty and justice that all progressive spaces like a premier institute of eminence must uphold.”

They even said that students have been at the forefront of every democratic churning that India has experienced: the anti-Emergency protests famously began with student strikes in Gujarat against hikes in hostel mess fees. How is it that administration expects that campuses must be ‘zones of exception’ for democratic rights and the right to protest? Why is it assumed that studying and politics cannot go together? asked the students in their letter.