By an IITR student
The expulsion of 73 students from the IIT Roorkee campus has shocked the student fraternity up and down the country. Here’s why I think the IITR administration has got it horribly wrong and it ought to take the expelled students back at the earliest.
For the existing rule of attendance at IIT Roorkee, we are informed twice in each semester just before mid term and end term. Then why no such information for a new rule which was introduced but never communicated to students. Neither the authorities nor the professor care to warn us about this new rule.
Are the authorities not aware that students blatantly use fake signature on attendance register (proxy) for others? Before striking off these 73 students, did the administration care to know that many of those whose CGPA was below 5 or less (5 pointers as they are called) include high flying entrepreneurs such as Rahul Gupta ( founder of Rays Expert, more than Rs 600 crore company in just four years). There are many others who have outsmarted those those 9 or 10 pointers, amply proving the fact that judging a student based on CGPA was flawed and ought to go.
The reality is that our institute does not offer any opportunity to academically poor students to discuss their issues in the senate before the General Secretary of Student Affair Council ( highest body ) because the IITR’s rule, which bars students with CGPA less than 6.5 from contesting election to become part of senate. They can not even hold any of the powerful posts (secretary, joint secretary, additional secy of any of the sections or the highest Committee members of the fest).
Here’s the timeline of how things transpired before the administration decided to strike off the names of 73 students.
We understand that the Director had a meeting with all the heads of departments and senior professors either on July 8 or 9, when they discussed their mercy pleas before concluding in favour of their expulsion.
After this meeting few of the parents moved to Nainital court and others to courts in Delhi to explore their legal options.
Meanwhile, all other students whose names were not in the list launched social media campaign on Facebook and WhatsApp platforms. We the students of IITR have now created a Facebook page called ‘take_them_back’ urging the authorities to give these 73 students a second chance. We are humbled to have received overwhelming support not just from IITR students but also IIT campuses from around the country.
We are simply requesting on the behalf of the entire college that the administration take the expelled students back!
After a long summer vacation, the campus will open on July 14, when we students plan to hold massive protests if our demands are not met. We are also in conversation with legal experts to explore how we can seek judicial remedy for the injustice meted out to our fellow students.
www.jantakareporter.com is not revealing the identity of the blogger for the fear of reprisal from the IITR administration
