IIT Kanpur Head Gives Cheeky Retort To News Agency Claiming Institute ‘Joined Chorus Against Jamia Crackdown’

On 16 December, news agency Press Trust of India (PTI) put out a report with the headline, “IIT Kanpur, IIT Madras and IIT Bombay join chorus against crackdown on Jamia, AMU students”.

The report says, “Students from three prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) joined the chorus against the police crackdown on the Jamia Millia Islamia and the Aligarh Muslim University students. The premiere institutions — IIT Kanpur, IIT Madras and IIT Bombay — are not the regular ones to join protests and usually stay away from agitations.”

If the report was meant to be news for the agency’s readers, it turned out to be so even for the institute’s administration.

Deputy Director of IIT Kanpur, Manindra Agrawal, gave a cheeky response to the report on Twitter, “Well, this is news to me! As Deputy Director of IIT Kanpur, I am not aware of any such public protest by students. Maybe some students protested in their hostel wing!”

Agarwal left his reply as a comment on PTI’s tweet.

The PTI report cites a paragraph from “a poster by students from IIT Kanpur” that says, “...our commitment towards the students' community is under huge jeopardy if we don't respond now”.