Alumni of Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (IIT-K), including many residents of Ranchi, are signing a statement expressing solidarity with the IIT-K students and faculty members who had organised a peaceful march on their campus on December 17 to condemn police action against students in the wake of nationwide protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC).

The statement follows the formation of a high level committee by IIT-K to investigate and take disciplinary action against the students for taking out the march.

“We stand in complete solidarity with the students of IIT-K who marched in protest against violence inflicted upon the protesting students of Aligarh Muslim University, Jamia Millia Islamia and other universities against the CAA and the NRC,” said the statement that has so far been signed by 190 people who had been attached to IIT-K either as students or employees.

V.N. Sharma, chairman of Federation of Retired SAIL Employees and a student of IIT-K in the late 1960s, said around 300 students and faculty members had taken out the protest march after taking permission from the administration of the institute.

When the students and faculty members assembled for the march, the administration asked them not to continue with it as Section 144 was in force in Kanpur.

“When the students demanded a written order, they were shown an old order that they felt didn’t apply to them and took out the march,” the statement added.

A campus magazine run by right-wing students described the march as communal while another magazine brought out by the pro-march students countered it.

The administration set up a panel to probe the matter and take disciplinary action.

“The students as citizens of India have every right to peacefully express their opinion on any subject,” Sharma said, explaining why they felt it was important to issue and sign such a statement.

The IIT-K administration’s move amounts to intimidating the students, he said, adding that they should instead encourage a dialogue.

“I, along with two other alumni members, had sent the statement to the director and deans of IIT-K with a forwarding note,” Sharma said

He said they have an informal organisation named Citizens Forum of IIT-K that has hundreds of members across the globe.

They hold Skype meetings to plan action when an issue crops up.