IIT-Madras row: DMK, VCK stage protests

Chennai/New Delhi: DMK and Dalit outfit VCK on Monday staged protests against the derecognition of a students’ body at IIT, Madras, after a complaint that it was critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

About 200 volunteers of DMK’s student wing, who protested under its secretary Ela. Pugazhenthi, were detained, police said. The protesters demanded that the derecognition be rolled back immediately and sought Modi’s intervention for the same.

Similarly, VCK founder Thol. Thirumavalavan, who had led a protest separately, was also detained, police said. Later, Pugazhenthi told reporters that a petition has been submitted to the authorities of IIT, Madras, seeking revoking of the derecognition of Ambedkar Periar Study Circle. Expressing solidarity with APSC, members of left-backed students unions and organisations staged a protest outside Shastri Bhavan in New Delhi where HRD ministry is located.

“The APSC was de-recognised as per the Ministry’s diktat. What we feel is that there are other groups too which conduct programmes which politicise campus. Why the ministry has objections to the group (APSC) which talks about education system, contemporary issues? So, to express solidarity with them we staged protest,” president of Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union Ashutosh Kumar said at the protest venue. RPI leader Ramdas Athawale denounced IIT-M’s action as “unjust” and said HRD Minister Smriti Irani should have intervened to thwart the measure taken by the institute against the students body.