IIMC students lodge complaint against abusive posts targeting Dalits, tribals on social media

The controversial suicide of Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula has found an echo at the Indian Institute of Mass Communication in Delhi with posts by some students on social media using abusive language against Dalit and tribal students prompting about 17 IIMC students to complain to the information and broadcasting ministry.

The students have also moved the National Commission for Scheduled Castes over what they said is an attempt to spread “ill-will” on campus. I&B secretary Sunil Arora ordered that a report be submitted on the matter within a week.

Two students who wrote the offending blogs have since apologised, sources said. The institute has also issued instructions for a SC/ST cell to be set up to address such issues in the future. I&B joint secretary Mihir Kumar Singh visited the campus on Wednesday to take stock of the situation.

In their complaint, students have attached blog posts of several students who used derogatory remarks against Dalits and Adivasis. The first was posted on Facebook on January 18, a day after Vemula’s suicide. “We had an informal student-faculty debate on the issue of caste reservation. We then saw that one of the students had posted this message that was abusive and anti-reservation,” a student said, adding that many of their peers had “liked” the post and another had even written a blog supporting this. Several others defended the blog as “freedom of speech”.

Dalit and tribal students said they were also subject to taunts as they went about their classes. “There were hashtags on social media … comments passed against students when they walked in the corridors,” another student said.

When contacted, one of the accused students, said he was being subjected to “personal revenge” by the “misuse” of constitutional protection granted to SC and ST community people.