Date: 23 Feb.

2016
To
His Excellency
The Honorable President of India
Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi

Sub: Petition for saving our educational institutions from the scholarship of abuse
and hate that has become rampant.

Dear sir
We, the undersigned members of the faculty of IIT, Madras, petition Your Excellency
as enclosed.
Sincerely

Professor, Dept. of Electrical Engineering, IIT Madras

(for the 56 faculty signatories)

Encl: Petition

SAVE OUR EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS

FROM THE SCHOLARSHIP OF ABUSE AND HATE
We, the undersigned, a group of faculty of IIT Madras, feel concerned about the
situation in the country where institutions of higher learning are being converted into
war zones by some academicians, politicians and sections of media. We feel that
there is a need to save educational institutions from the scholarship of abuse and
hate.
We support intellectual freedom, and alternative views are a must for democracy and
creativity. However, there is a deep distortion of the meaning of academic freedom
which is leading to a vitiated atmosphere in the campuses. Young, simple minded
and (many-a-time) poor students entering the campuses are being seen as fodder in
the ideological war of their mentors. Students joining institutions aspiring to become
scholars are being converted into agitators instead. They are being taught the
language of abuse, hate and discord at the cost of sobriety, reflection and harmony
necessary for genuine scholarship. In the name of academic autonomy, angry
academics should not wage their ideological wars, nor can an institute campus be
beyond the norms of the society outside in matters of abusive and hateful
expressions. Calling for dismemberment and ruin of our country in the name of
dissent is not acceptable, even in a university.
These issues dissipate quite a lot of our energy and time which otherwise would
have gone towards the growth of the country in general and academia in particular.
We voice our opinion against such developments.
Words have the power to both destroy and heal. When words are both true and
kind, they can change our world. - Gautama Buddha.
We are signing this petition in our individual capacities, and make no claim that it
necessarily represents the opinion of the Institute.
Signed by 56 members of the faculty whose names and designation are appended
below:
List of Signatories
1. Prof. Shreepad Karmalkar, Dept. of Electrical Engineering
2. Prof. P. Sriram, Dept. of Aerospace Engineering
3. Dr. P. A. Ramakrishna, Dept. of Aerospace Engineering
4. Dr. V. Krishna Nandivada, Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering

5. Prof. M. T Nair, Dept. of Mathematics

6. Dr. Prasanta Kumar Tripathy, Dept. of Physics
7. Prof. C. Vijayan, Dept. of Physics
8. Prof. R. Damodaran, Dept. of Chemistry
9. Prof. S. K. Bhattacharya, Dept. of Ocean Engineering
10. Dr. N. Narayanan, Dept. of Mathematics
11. Dr. Kunal Krishna Mukherjee, Dept. of Mathematics
12. Dr. M. Ramanathan, Dept. of Engineering Design
13. Dr. Anurag Mittal, Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering
14. Prof. Devendra Jalihal, Dept. of Electrical Engineering
15. Dr. Sivarama Krishnan, Dept. of Physics
16. Dr. Arun D Mahindrakar, Dept. of Electrical Engineering
17. Dr. Balaji Narasimhan, Dept. of Civil Engineering
18. Prof. Venkatesh Balasubramanian, Dept. of Engineering Design
19. Dr. Rajesh Narayanan, Dept. of Physics.
20. Prof. Mahesh Panchagnula, Dept. of Applied Mechanics
21. Prof. N.S. Narayanaswamy, Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering
22. Prof. K. Giridhar, Dept of Electrical Engineering
23. Dr. Jitendra Sangwai, Dept. of Ocean Engineering
24. Dr. Edamana Prasad, Dept. of Chemistry
25. Dr. Ganapathy Krishnamurthi, Dept. of Engineering Design
26. Dr. Ashis Kumar Sen, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering
27. Dr. Satya Sundar Sethy, Dept. of Humanities and Social Sciences
28. Dr. Bharath Bhikkaji, Dept of Elec. Engg.
29. Prof. J. Murali Krishnan, Dept. of Civil Engg.
30. Dr. Krithika Narayanaswamy, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering
31. Dr. Raghuram Chetty, Dept. of Chemical Engineering
32. Dr. Sudakar Chandran, Dept. of Physics
33. Prof. Swarnalatha Rangarajan, Dept. of Humanities and Social Sciences
34. Prof. Devdas Menon, Dept. of Civil Engineering
35. Prof. K. C. Sivakumar, Dept. of Mathematics
36. Prof. Prasad Patnaik B S V, Dept. of Applied Mechanics
37. Dr. Suhas Pandit, Dept. of Mathematics
38. Dr. Varadhan SKM, Dept. of Applied Mechanics

39. Dr. Karthik Raman, Dept. of Biotechnology

40. Prof. Jyotirmaya Tripathy, Dept. of Humanities and Social Sciences
41. Dr. V. Vijayalakshmi, Dept. of Management Studies
42. Dr. R. Sharma, Dept. of Ocean Engineering
43. Prof. Murthy Haradanahalli S. N., Dept. Aerospace Engineering
44. Dr. Balkrishna C. Rao, Dept.of Engineering Design
45. Dr. Bijoy Krishna Das, Dept. of Electrical Engineering
46. Dr. Subramanya Sarma, V. Dept. of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering
47. Prof. Arindama Singh, Dept. of Mathematics.
48. Dr. Shantanu S. Mulay, Dept. of Aerospace Engg.
49. Prof. Sanjib Senapati, Dept. of Biotechnology
50. Dr. C. S. Ramalingam, Dept. of Electrical Engineering
51. Dr. S. Aniruddhan, Dept. of Electrical Engineering
52. Dr. Arun Menon, Dept. of Civil Engineering
53. Dr. Arun K Thittai, Dept. of Applied Mechanics
54. Dr. Mahaveer K Jain, Dept. of Physics
55. Prof. Jagadeesh Kumar V, Dept. of Electrical Engineering
56. Dr. Ravi Sankar Kottada, Dept. of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering