The IIT-Madras on Tuesday justified its decision to postpone its convocation in order to have Prime Minister Narendra Modi as chief guest, but the students’ body has called it ‘unfair and highly inconsiderate’. The communication from the institute on postponement came on Monday just over two weeks ahead of the event, which was originally planned on July 19. The students' general secretary has written to IIT-M Director Bhaskar Ramamurthi, requesting him to allow at least the UG convocation to proceed as scheduled.

Students have already been showing discontent over the administration’s decision to have a two-part event. The first part is the main convocation where only prize/medal winners and Ph.D scholars will be given degrees and the second is what is called D3P (Department Degree Distribution Programme). 

“While there was confusion about the separate institute and department-level convocations, the administration had never hinted that the date July 19 was not final. In fact, repeated e-mails about the collection of angavasthrams kept reminding us of the convocation’s date. We intend no disrespect to the PM, but the inconvenience caused to so many students and families, all for the sake of one guest of honour, cannot be excused,” reads the email from the general secretary to the IIT-M director. 

In response, the director said he understood the disruption caused by the postponement, but justified the decision: “We tried to get consent for July 19th (PM’s participation). While we tried, we prepared under the assumption that it might be possible. Once, we were told it was not possible given the constraints, we had to plan for a new date. We are waiting for the new date.”