Sibal tells Indian Institutes of Technology professor to drop fast, no to pleas

Taking a tough stance against the faculty members of the Indian Institutes of Technology who had on Monday announced a day-long nationwide protest hunger strike on Thursday demanding a better pay package and more functional autonomy for their premier institutes, human resources development minister Kapil Sibal said Tuesday that their behaviour was unbecoming for professors of the elite institutions.

"It is not proper for professors of elite institutions to resort to hunger strikes. We always dream that the IITs should produce Nobel laureates. We do not expect our prospective Nobel laureates to go on hunger strike. They should be hungry for knowledge," he said.

"We are not averse to meeting anybody. We are averse to the procedure adopted by the faculty of talking to us through the media. They just cannot announce a hunger strike and (then) ask for a meeting," Mr Sibal said

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Talks with Gujjars start well, today’s bandh off

The 16-day-long violent Gujjar agitation, which left at least 43 persons dead and several more injured, saw the first signs of a breakthrough on Monday after the first round of talks between the agitators and the Rajasthan government at Bayana in Bharatpur district, the epicentre of the protest.

Appearing satisfied over the way the preliminary discussions had progressed, the Gujjars, agitating for Scheduled Tribe status for their community, have decided to withdraw the nationwide bandh they had called on Tuesday.

Describing the Bayana talks as “amicable”, community leaders agreed to attend the next round of discussions in Jaipur. The leader of the agitation, Col. Kirori Singh Bainsla (Retd), who refused to participate in Monday’s discussions personally, said these talks had been “fruitful” and that he was not opposed to the idea of sending community members to Jaipur “for further discussions” with Rajasthan government representatives.

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