“When Humanities Become Ideology: The Questions IIT Bombay Must Answer”, IndiaFacts, 29 Sep 2026.

“An institution as prestigious as IIT Bombay must be able to enforce academic standards, protect students from discrimination, defend due process, and permit intellectual disagreement, all at the same time.

The death of IIT Bombay student Sahil Wakode has raised questions that cannot be answered either by sympathy alone or by immediately assigning a single cause. Wakode, a second-year BTech student, died by suicide on September 18 after an examination-hall incident in which he was allegedly suspected of using a mobile phone. His family subsequently alleged caste-based harassment. An FIR was registered against Professor Suryanarayana Doolla under Section 108 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and provisions of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. IIT Bombay removed Doolla from his position as Dean (Administrative Affairs), although he remained a professor. The Mumbai Crime Branch is now investigating the circumstances surrounding the death, including what happened in the examination hall and the interactions between Wakode and those present.

That sequence matters because several different questions are being conflated. Was there academic misconduct? What exactly happened in the examination hall? Was there caste-based discrimination? Did any conduct amount to abetment? Did institutional procedures work properly? And what responsibilities does an elite educational institution have towards students who enter it with different levels of preparation, different social backgrounds and different capacities to cope with failure? None of these questions should be settled by converting an allegation into a finding. A student’s death demands serious enquiry, but that enquiry must also require intellectual discipline…………..”

Read the full article at IndiaFacts.