IIT-M row: Stir continues, Athawale says action unjust

Protests were held in Chennai and the national capital against the institute's decision to temporary de-recognise Ambedkar-<g data-gr-id="22">Periar</g> Study Circle (APSC) by the IIT-Madras management after an anonymous complaint that it was spreading "hatred" against Prime Minister Narendra Modi was forwarded to it by the Union HRD ministry.

About 200 members of DMK's students wing led by its secretary Ela. Pugazhenthi <g data-gr-id="25">were</g> detained in Chennai while staging a protest to demand revocation of IIT-M's decision.

The agitators demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi step in to resolve the situation.

VCK founder Tho. Thirumavalavan, who led a separate demonstration by his supporters, was also detained, police said. Expressing <g data-gr-id="23">solidatiry</g> with APSC, members of left-backed students unions and organisations staged a protest outside Shastri Bhavan in New Delhi where HRD ministry is located.

"The APSC was de-recognized as per the Ministry's diktat. What we feel is that there are other groups too which conduct programmes which politicize campus.

"Why the ministry has objections to the group (APSC) which talks about <g data-gr-id="32">education</g> system, contemporary issues? So, to express solidarity with them we staged protest," president of Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union Ashutosh Kumar said at the protest venue.

Amid <g data-gr-id="29">mounting</g> outcry, RPI leader Ramdas Athawale denounced IIT-M's action as "unjust" and said HRD Minister Smriti Irani should have intervened to thwart the measure taken by the institute against the students body.