So much for a fair probe: Vipin Veetil criticises NCBC for asking IITM director to conduct inquiry

The IIT Madras professor who quit over alleged caste discrimination in the institute has now written another letter to the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC), asking them to investigate his complaint either through a regional office of the Commission or through a body funded by the State Government of Tamil Nadu. Vipin P Veetil, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Humanities and Social Science had quit the institute on July 1 and had filed a complaint with the NCBC on August 5. He then took back his resignation.

In his letter, Vipin says that on August 18, the NCBC had asked Dr Bhaskar Ramamurthy, the Director of IIT Madras, to conduct an inquiry. He adds that he had filed a complaint with the commission because he did not think that the institute will conduct a fair probe and that its current action will defeat the purpose of the complaint. He backs it up by saying that one of the accused in his complaint was promoted as the department head and that the other was elevated as the IIT senate's nominee to the Board of Governors. "So much for a ‘fair probe’," he says.

"The methods of investigation and inquiry listed in Chapter III of the ‘Rules of Procedure of the National Commission for Backward Classes’ (Item 3.1.2) allows the Commission to adopt one or more of five methods for inquiring into a complaint. One of those methods is for the Commission to conduct an inquiry of its own through a regional office. Another method is for the Commission to direct a body funded by the State Government to conduct the inquiry," says the letter.

An email sent to IITM seeking comments on this issue did not yield any response. This copy will be updated once they respond.