IIT Madras assistant professor resigns over alleged caste discrimination from the faculty

Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-M) Assistant Professor Vipin P Veetil on Thursday, July 1, has resigned from his post over alleged caste discrimination. A resignation letter that surfaced online, purportedly from the assistant professor, sees him accusing the members of the faculty for his decision. Asst prof Vipin, who hails from Payyanur in Kerala has been a part of IIT-M since March 2019.

IIT Madras professor resigns citing alleged caste discrimination

Vipin P Veetil handed in his resignation through an e-mail, which has since gone viral on social media. According to the letter reported to be sent by him, Vipin cites caste discrimination he faced at the Humanities and Social Sciences department as his reason to quit. The letter claims that he has been facing such discrimination since his joining in 2019.

The letter sees the prof accuse ‘individuals in position of power’ of discrimination. It also revealed that there were multiple instances where was faced with ill-treatment. The letter also sees the asst prof demand the IIT-M authorities set up a committee consisting of members from the Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe (SC/ST) commission, OBC commission and psychologists to study and resolve such situations prevailing in the campus.

Meanwhile, the premier institute chose to neither deny nor confirm the truth behind the resignation letter. In a later statement, IIT-M claimed that any such complaint from employees and students is being attended to through their established process of redressing grievances. A screenshot of the letter was also shared on Twitter by S. Venkatesan, the sitting Member of Parliament of the Madurai Constituency. The MP called the incident ‘shocking’ and questioned why IIT Madras is ‘shrouded in secrecy?’

Students react to the asst prof's resignation

The widely circulated letter was also shared on social media by the Ambedkar Periyar Study Circle, an IIT-M student collective. The group took to Twitter to share screengrabs of the letter while using the hashtag ‘#End_Casteism_in_IIT.’ Earlier in 2019, Fathima Latheef, a 19-year-old student of IIT-M had committed suicide having allegedly faced religious discrimination from the faculty. The student’s collective had then staged a protest demanding justice for Fathima.

(Image credit: PTI)