The Indian Institute of Technology, Dharwad, has told employees not to engage with the media in any away unless officially “assigned” and warned of disciplinary action if they flouted the order.
The directive — effectively a gag order at a time of widespread campus unrest against the new citizenship matrix — came in a circular the tech school issued on Tuesday.
The circular, which has cited the IIT’s conduct rules, has barred the employees from even publishing anything anonymously.
An IIT official, who asked not to be named, said there was “nothing out of the ordinary” in the circular. “It’s just a normal circular based on our rules of conduct,” the official, who works in the administrative wing of the tech school, around 430km from Bangalore, told The Telegraph on Wednesday.
“This circular is binding only on employees who are, however, allowed to communicate on academic developments or even through the official channel (through the public relations officer).”
The February 4 circular, signed by assistant registrar (administration) Sandip Parikh, cites Clause 7 of Statute 19 (3) Schedule C of the IIT’s conduct rules.
“No employee shall, in any media activity or in any document published anonymously or in his own name or in the name of any of other person or in any communication to the media or in any public utterance, make any statement of fact or opinion,” the circular says, drawing attention to the clause.
It then goes on to cite two sub-clauses that detail the topics that are off-limits. The employees, the circular says, cannot make any statement that can have the “effect of an adverse criticism of any current or recent policy or action of the Institute”, or is “capable of embarrassing the relations between the Institute and of the Central Government or any State Government or any other institute or organisation or members of the public”.
The circular says that nothing in the paragraphs would apply to any statements made by an employee “in his official capacity or in the due performance of the duties assigned”.
The warning came in the following paragraph: if any employee did not comply with the rules, they would “attract disciplinary action”.
The circular has raised eyebrows at a time the student community and teachers have been at the forefront of the protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, the proposed National Register of Citizens and the National Population Register.
Last month, another premier tech school, IIT-Bombay, had warned students against participating in campus protests or giving speeches against the new citizenship law without permission from the dean of student affairs.
The Dharwad campus, which started in 2016 and is among the youngest in the IIT chain, is not known for any protests.
Devanand Jagapur, a core committee member of the Dharwad-based NGO Samvidhana Suraksha Samithi (Constitution Protection Committee), said IIT-Dharwad students have stayed away from protests.
“They never join our protests against any issue, let alone the CAA. While all other institutions have been taking part in anti-CAA protests, IIT-Dharwad students have not even contacted us to express solidarity,” Jagapur told this newspaper.
Gangadher Badiger, a Left trade unionist who works for ASHA health workers, agreed.
“I have been there (Dharwad) as part of the March for Science event (in April 2017). But apart from that, they have been tight-lipped about issues like the CAA,” he said.
