IIT Roorkee warns students against showing ‘political affinity’ to movements ‘like current one’

The Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, on Monday warned students and employees against showing their “affinity with political movement like the one currently in public utterance and in public criticism”, The Indian Express reported.

In an advisory, the institute “politely reminded” students and employees that, under its notified conduct rules, they could not participate in political discussions or activities without permission.

It also said that they could not make statements or express opinions in the media or in public that were capable of “embarrassing the relations between the institute and the Union government or other organisations”.

Purported screenshots of the advisory were widely shared on social media, including by Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra.

The advisory came on the day the Cockroach Janta Party led a protest march to Parliament demanding Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan's resignation over the alleged mismanagement of competitive examinations. Security personnel fired tear gas shells and carried out a lathi-charge to disperse protesters after they attempted to march towards Parliament. While the police stopped protest leaders from proceeding, some demonstrators moved closer to Parliament and gathered at other locations in central Delhi.

After the advisory drew criticism online, IIT Roorkee said that it was an internal communication circulated among students, faculty and staff at the start of every academic session, ANI reported.

“The communication should not be misinterpreted or viewed out of context,” the institute told the news agency.

Edited by Tanya Shrivastava.

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