The faculty forum of IIT Delhi has passed a resolution strongly backing its director Raghunath Shevgaonkar in the wake of his resignation from the post a few days back citing some "unforeseen situations".
"We, the faculty forum of IIT Delhi, unanimously and unitedly extend our full support to our director. We vehemently protest the malicious allegations and the politicisation of issues in the press and media," the forum said in its resolution, a copy of which was sent to President Pranab Mukherjee, the Visitor to the IITs. The HRD Ministry is yet to accept Shevgaonkar's resignation even as the latter has gone on leave. In a mail last week to the faculty members and students of IIT-Delhi, he had said it was his last new year message as the Director of IIT Delhi and that he was awaiting his relieving order.
Shevgaonkar, whose resignation had triggered a controversy, has attributed his decision to some "unforeseen situations". "Towards the end of the year... some unforeseen situations developed and I had to decide to step down from my position," he had said. Shevgaonkar, however, did not elaborate on the factors that had led to his decision to quit. A statement issued by IIT-Delhi right after the resignation had attributed the move to "personal reasons".
In his mail, Shevgaonkar had said there is a need to convey a positive image about the internal functioning of the institute to the outside world. "Disagreement is an essential part of a healthy academic environment. However, care needs to be taken that the internal differences are not exploited by the outsiders to affect our functioning," he had said. After his resignation kicked up a row, the Centre said it has appointed a committee to look into the legality of an MoU signed with Mauritius during Shevgaonkar's tenure for setting up of a campus there even as IIT said the pact had approvals from the government.
HRD Ministry officials have maintained that there was no pressure on Shevgaonkar to resign while IIT Delhi had said the resignation was "not connected to any other matter being reported in the press". Certain media reports had claimed that Shevgaonkar was under pressure to approve a proposal for a cricket academy on the IIT campus and to clear dues of Rs 70 lakh to former IIT professor and BJP leader Subramanian Swamy.
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