The neutrality of this article is disputed. I realize that it’s not possible to stuff everything into one article and have decided to split the #iitdeath episode across three articles: Provocation, The day that was (this article), and Aftermath. This article serves only to describe the violent student protests and the open house discussion that followed it on the 22nd of March, 2009.
Rohit Kumar, 3rd year electrical engineering student of IIT Kharagpur was declared dead today morning at Midapur hospital, while being transferred from the institute’s BC Roy hospital to Kolkata. He succumbed to a head injury after falling off a cycle-rickshaw in the campus. He could probably have been saved, had he received timely medical attention at BC Roy. The issue of health amenities has plagued the Kharagpur community for too long now, and in spite of repeated incidents and requests, the facilities continue to be dismal.
What followed was a massive protest by over 1500 students, who gathered in front of the director’s house. The media wasn’t allowed to enter the front gate. The LAN/ internet was shut down to flush all the students out of their rooms and join the protest. Since very few students have GPRS, and without the media and internet, practically nobody outside the institute knew about the event. The protest was violent and the mob had one demand- they wanted the director to resign. They wouldn’t settle for anything less.
Violence has no bounds. Students were angered that the institute their own batchmate/ friend die. They wanted to break into the house and literally beat up the director. After breaking all the window panes in the director’s house, they proceeded to break open the lock of his garage, took out his car and totally destroyed it. It didn’t stop there- they just kept breaking everything they could lay their hands on.
When the director did finally appear at the door, there was almost a stampede in the rush to grab him and beat him up. The director had no choice but to give in his resignation. Yes, the director of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur had to resign because the students protested so damn violently.
Throughout the event, I tried to post updates on Twitter tagged #iitdeath. I also managed to click some pics. Although I’ve hardly done justice, I’ve taken care to make sure that I’ve smudged out the few partially seen faces seen in some photos, in view of people’s anonymity.
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Broken windows at the Director’s house, due to stone pelting
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Director’s car upturned
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A harmless lamp on the director’s garden ripped apart
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An rod forced into a harmless water tank on the director’s garden
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The insides of the director’s upturned car
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A perspective view of the director’s upturned car
An open house discussion followed at 10:45 PM in the Tagore Open Air Theater (TOAT), which was attended by over 4000 students. A rational discussion was expected, but mob mentality kicked in pretty soon; students started shouting at the top of their voices. The result of the discussion: The dean of student affairs resigned from his post, and the deputy director resigned from the post of chairman of BC Roy. Some valid points were discussed as well, but most of them were drowned in the mob’s voice. To see what was discussed, refer to the Aftermath article.
The event has received extensive press coverage. All major newspapers including The Hindu have a front page article on Monday morning about the event, but the reports lack detail due to widespread misinformation. Even Scholars’ Avenue is uncertain about several facts. An official press release is expected to clear out most of these details.
On Monday morning at 11AM, a meeting was held to resolve the issues discussed in the open house discussion at 10:45 PM on Sunday evening. The minutes of the meeting are available here. As seen from the minutes, the discussion is still at its early stages.
