A group of students from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi started a signature campaign demanding an immediate and impartial inquiry into the tragic demise of Varad Nerkar, an MTech student who died by suicide at IIT Delhi on February 15.
This move by IIT Delhi students echoes solidarity with Varad's family who had written to the IIT Delhi administration on March 3, alleging that the deceased had taken the extreme step after facing mental torture at the hands of his project guides Prof Harpal Singh, Prof Josemon Jacob, as well as a PhD scholar Mohd Anees from the same department.
Responding to the parents’ complaint, IIT Delhi Director Prof Rangan Banerjee said that the complaint has been forwarded to the police and an investigation is underway.
The institute also constituted a 12-member committee to examine the prevailing atmosphere in the institute which so far has witnessed an incremental rise in the number of student suicides.
However, the students of IIT Delhi expressed that while these steps are crucial and welcomed, they still do not look into the specific allegations of harassment that were raised in Varad's parents' letter.
The students demanded that an external inquiry committee be constituted by the institute, similar to the one that was commissioned by IIT Madras last year to investigate the death of its student Sachin Kumar Jain, which led to the suspension of a professor accused of harassment.
Why an external committee?
Echoing Varad’s parents' concerns, the students of IIT Delhi demanded that the institute appoint an Inquiry Committee that will include credible external members and student participation.
“A police enquiry would investigate the matter from a criminal angle and that is important. But it does not oversee violations of IIT Delhi's internal policies and statutes, and nor is it concerned with the breach of the norms of a student-guide relationship. Varad's parents have emphasised that their appeal in the complaint letter was for an independent external committee that would investigate the role of institutional administrative norms being violated in the circumstances of Varad's death,” the students said in a statement shared on social media platform X today, Tuesday, March 12.
The demands by IIT Delhi students further add that the results arrived at by the committee must be disclosed to the student community and must be addressed with proper action.
“We want institutional change but we cannot ensure it unless we also ensure that people in authority are held responsible for their abuse of power. If institutional change is not to be reduced to a talking point, then the institute must find it their duty as well to investigate the specific causes of Varad's death, as well as the larger environmental causes,” the students added.
