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Mumbai: The Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT-B)’s interim report into the death of Dalit student Darshan Solanki “holds no surprises”, according to a professor of the institute’s Humanities and Social Sciences department, who wrote an email to the institute’s faculty discussion forum on Tuesday, March 7.
The letter, written by a faculty member, professor Sharmila, which is critical of the report, has become a much-discussed topic within the campus.
“Once again, we find that suicide, its causes and responsibilities, are entirely individualised. The ‘strong reason’ for the suicide, we learn, is that Darshan Solanki despaired from his deteriorating academic performance. The committee does not spend time to consider systemic causes for the deathly prevalence of academic anxiety in this campus,” Sharmila wrote.
An IIT-B committee which is investigating Solanki’s death submitted its interim report on this matter to the college administration on March 6. Various stakeholders, including students, educators, and now a member of the faculty itself, have criticised the report.
Professor Sharmila also referred to the investigation into Aniket Ambhore’s tragic suicide in 2014. “Some of us had dashed out an open letter in the wake of Solanki’s suicide. Unfortunately, it did not get much traction. It had only one, almost innocuous demand — that we have the integrity to concede that IIT-B is not a charmed circle within which all discriminations magically fall aside. On the contrary, we need to admit that it is a thriving ground for all manner of oppression. That caste discrimination, in particular, flourishes the more we look the other way. Our social, emotional, institutional responsibilities can begin only with that acknowledgement,” her email states.
HT tried to reach Sharmila via email and an official telephone number, but could not contact her despite efforts.
Meanwhile, an informal student organisation on campus representing the interests of marginalised students, the Ambedkar Periyar Phule Study Circle (APPSC), rejected the interim inquiry report which maintains that there is no proof of caste discrimination in Solanki’s death. The APPSC has been voicing support for the chemical engineering student after he died by suicide on February 12.
The incident has sparked a national uproar and revived debates on institutional caste-based discrimination in spaces of higher education. During a protest gathering demanding justice for Solanki on March 4, the father of Aniket Ambhore cautioned that the investigating committee would blame the student’s weakness for the unfortunate incident.
In a symbolic move, the APPSC has ‘renamed’ the interim report to: “Signed confession of institutional murder of Darshan Solanki by the committee.”
“The nonchalance with which the committee has substituted Darshan’s name with “DS” speaks volumes of shallow, superficial and flippant attitude in which they have prepared a hasty report,” the APPSC said, pointing out how the report is contradictory in critical places. They have termed it as an attempt to actively hide the caste discrimination prevailing on campus.