Raj Thackeray: caste has spread so much since 2000 that it has reached IIT

MNS chief Raj Thackeray has written a detailed social media post on the suicide of Sahil Wakode, a 20 year old student of IIT Mumbai. In the post he spoke about the education system, the pressure on students, and the allegations of caste based harassment raised in the case. Thackeray said the most important question is why Sahil chose the path of suicide, and this needs to be thought about seriously.

Sahil Wakode was a second year student in the Energy Science and Engineering department at IIT Mumbai. He died on September 18. He had been accused of using a mobile phone and ChatGPT during an examination. On the other hand, Sahil's family says he faced caste discrimination and mental harassment. After the family's complaint, police have registered a case and an investigation is underway. The IIT Mumbai administration has said earlier that Sahil had not filed any complaint of caste discrimination with the SC/ST cell or with the administration.

In his post, Thackeray wrote that the suicide of the 20 year old student Sahil Wakode at IIT Mumbai is an extremely sad incident. The IIT administration had initially accused him of using a mobile phone and ChatGPT during the exam. It later admitted that making this allegation public before the investigation was complete was wrong, and apologised. On the other hand, Sahil's family has alleged caste based harassment, on which a case has been registered and an investigation is underway. Professors have also put forward their side. Thackeray said that in this whole matter a young boy has left us, but no one is discussing why he had to directly choose the path of suicide.

He further wrote that if a student cheats in an exam, it is the professors' responsibility to stop it and act as per the rules. But it is not right to hold a dead student guilty before the allegation is proven. Similarly, holding professors guilty before the investigation into a caste harassment allegation is complete is also wrong. Thackeray said that nobody is thinking about this matter properly, because the issue of caste has now been pushed to the front, when the real question is why a 20 year old boy felt after one incident that all paths in his life had closed.

Thackeray said he has often said in his speeches that after the year 2000, caste has spread so much in Maharashtra that people now point out which caste the student sitting next to them in school belongs to, and office staff who have eaten together for years have also started viewing each other through the lens of caste. This poison has now reached IIT. Pandit Nehru had called the IITs the temples of modern India, and in that very IIT a student has died by suicide, a companion has left us, and instead the debate going on is whether all of this happened because of caste. There can be no greater misfortune than this.

Thackeray said that IIT, or any competitive exam before it, is now becoming life threatening. Lakhs of students sit for a few seats, after selection there is the burden of studies, and then there is the stress of what will happen in campus placement. Whether IIT or IIM, campus placements no longer offer salaries as good as before. This depression is not limited to IIT students alone. Students of commerce and arts, doctors and engineers, all face this stress. Sahil died by suicide in this same depression. Thackeray asked whether this completely broken education system should be questioned and changed, or whether people should keep pulling out the caste of the student who died by suicide and of those demanding answers.

Thackeray said this is not an issue for any government. Over the last 30 to 40 years, the entire Indian education system has been seriously damaged by the commercialisation of education, and it needs to be changed from its roots. The recently started Gen Z movement seemed to be making a start on this, when this incident came to light. He appealed to students that their movement got support from across the country because their cause was to fix flaws in the system, and their movement should continue on this same path. He said that if this continues, the government will have to answer many questions and take some steps, but whether the government wants to do this or not is a separate matter, because the weapon of caste and religion is always available to the government, and once the issue of caste and religion is raised it becomes easy to divert attention from the real issue, so no one should fall into this trap.

Thackeray said that IIT Mumbai students have demanded a counselling system, availability of a psychiatrist round the clock, transparency in the proper resolution of complaints once filed, and a system under which students are not broken down during action taken for breaking discipline. He said this should be the real direction of the movement, and if it moves forward to remove flaws in the education system, the government and the administration will have to respond and take steps.