Several former IIT Kharagpur students have expressed outrage at the institute’s decision to rename a multi-speciality hospital, originally named after Dr B.C. Roy, after Syama Prasad Mookerjee and posted comments on the Facebook page of director V.K. Tewari.

“What is the purpose of renaming the hospital from BC Roy to Shyamaprasad other than satisfying the PM and his coteries?” wrote Indrajit Dutt.

“Please remember, the hospital was named with great fanfare as BC ROY Hospital by APJ Abdul Kalam and you cannot take away this name of a great doctor on whims and fancies. You may be aware Shyamaprasad had no credentials in medicine or surgery and BC Roy excelled in this matter. I am attaching the photographs of the earlier inauguration as blatant proof of the glaring mistakes you are making. Tagging a few fellow IITians….”

Dutt told Metro later: “Such was the degree of outrage that I did not wait to write a formal letter to him. I thought I should immediately post my reactions.”

He said he was in the same batch as Tewari at the IIT.

The director, however, has not responded to any of the comments posted on his timeline about the renaming.

Dutt posted a picture of the plaque bearing the name of Dr B.C. Roy, which was installed by the IIT authorities in 2007 while naming the proposed multi-speciality hospital after the former chief minister of Bengal on the occasion of the laying of the foundation stone. The hospital has come up in Balarampur, off the IIT campus.

Syama Prasad Mookerjee is the founder of the Jana Sangh, the precursor to the BJP. Dr B.C. Roy is the maker of modern Bengal.

The eight posts that are critical of the decision to rename the hospital were among the 37 comments on Tewari’s Facebook timeline till Tuesday evening.

Most of the remaining posts lauded the director for holding the convocation virtually and involving the Prime Minister in the proceedings. The Prime Minister will be the chief guest at the February 23 convocation.

Responding to Dutt’s comments, another former IITian posted: “I only hope the name of Azad Hall is not changed someday.” The former student later deleted the post.

The Azad Hall of Residence is a students’ hostel on the campus named after India’s first education minister, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad.

Monish Chatterjee posted: “Good point. Azad, Nehru, Patel — the essence of the Old Campus.”

Chatterjee, who had studied electronics and electrical communications engineering, shared a link of The Telegraph report on the renaming and wrote it “indicates a political agenda behind this re-naming, and it serves no other purpose than catering to a narrow, sadly sectarian agenda…. This denigrates both Bidhan Chandra Roy and also Shyama Prasad Mukherjee. This re-naming serves no purpose other than politicizing honorable names.”

This newspaper had on Sunday reported that director Tewari had made a Facebook post about the upcoming convocation on February 23, stating: “The Prime Minister will also inaugurate (virtually) Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, IIT Kharagpur.’’

Fourteen years ago, on May 17, 2007, then President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam had laid the foundation stone for the hospital.

Posting on the same thread, Kamalendu Ghosh wrote: “Human beings respond to incentives: post-retirement perks bring out sycophantic zeal’’.

A post by Umesh Kumar Dubey is steeped in sarcasm: “Dr Tewari, congratulation on organising the convocation. Is this the same institute...?”

He then shared a link that contains the IIT’s publications about the super-specialty hospital named after Dr B.C. Roy. “How could they rename a facility about which they have come up with publications even last year? It’s not that the facility was in the process of being built. It’s illogical and has been done with a purpose to derive political mileage,” Dubey, who had studied electrical engineering at the IIT, told this newspaper.

Repeated calls to Tewary went unanswered. He did not respond to a text message from this newspaper either.