CHENNAI: About 1,500 faculty members from various IITs across the country participated in the protest fast, organised by that the All India IIT Faculty Federation (AIIITF) on Thursday to express dissatisfaction over the pay commission’s recommendations, while the directors of most of the institutes did nothing to express their solidarity.
Even the number of faculty members on fast revealed that the AIIITF’s protest did not enjoy an overwhelming support from it members, though the organisers said that many could not take part in the agitation due to health reasons. “Directors in places like Delhi and Roorkee did come for the fast for sometime,” Prof M Thenmozhi, AIIITF president, said.
Senior faculty members, however, said that a majority of the teachers in IIT might not be in favour of such show of agitation. Dr Ashok Jhunjhunwala of the electrical engineering department in IIT Madras openly disagreed with the AIIITF. “I am certainly not proud of this. This is not what IITs should be known for. Today IIT faculty members are reduced to the level of others, who with their unions, will go on fast and strike. It brings down the stature of IITs and IIT faculty, something that I at least would not be proud of. What is worse is that I do not see strong reasons any more to take such an action,” he said in a mail to AIIITF members.
Dr Jhunjhunwala also emphasised that the many points of contention did not make sense and should at best be left for the Board of Governance (BoG) and Council to decide upon. “With the present notifications from the ministry, the institute and its BoG has independent powers with regard to recruitment. The only issue which I would relate to was attracting the best talent in the entry level for teaching at IIT.
There is not much case to agitate like this. It is very unbecoming of a faculty of such a premier institute,” said one of the IIT directors in another city. Some of the directors are also meeting in Delhi on Friday to discuss the issues. “None of them (the faculty) know how an institution like an IIT is run. They didn’t go through the directors to voice their issue which is very unfortunate. They shouldn’t have gone to roads like this,” stated a senior faculty member.
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