On Sunday (1st October), the mess councils along with the Wardens and Associate Wardens of three hostels of IIT-Bombay imposed a fine of ₹10000 on an unnamed student for creating chaos and flouting mess rules. The amount will be deduced from his Semester Mess Advance (SMA).
The development came three days after the said student, along with 2-3 others, deliberately ate non-vegetarian food in a reserved vegetarian section of the mess on September 28, 2023.
Thereafter, the mess councils of Hostel 12, 13 and 14 of IIT-Bombay held an online meeting with the Wardens and Associate Wardens of the three hostels and decided to penalise the student.
@iitbombay has imposed a fine of Rs 10000 on the students who had stood against the food segregation policy of the institute by a peaceful act of individual civil disobedience. This action of the admin is similar to a Khap Panchayat acting to uphold untouchability in modern times pic.twitter.com/dguRluvoV7
— APPSC IIT Bombay (@AppscIITb) October 2, 2023
“The mess council reviewed the evidence available and determined that a resident of Hostel 12 deliberately instigated the incident during dinner on 28/09/23. This act was a premeditated attempt to disrupt the peace and harmony within the mess, in defiance of the advice provided by the associate dean SA, as evidenced in shared email communication,” it said.
“At least two other individuals were involved, whose identities are yet to be ascertained. It was unanimously agreed that (his) behaviour was contrary to the inclusive and peaceful atmosphere at Hostel 12-13-14 mess. The mess council resolved to impose a fine of Rs. 10,000.00/-(Rupees Ten thousand only) on him,” read the minutes of the mess council meeting.
While calling for the maintenance of peace, it further added, “The mess council resolved to enlist the support of student representatives from the Hostel 12-13-14 councils to assist in identifying the other two individuals involved in the incident. Once their identities are established, appropriate disciplinary action will be taken against them as well.”
Only six out of 129 tables earmarked for vegetarians in a hostel mess of IIT Bombay triggered the recent ‘protest’ against ‘Brahminism’.
— Swati Goel Sharma (@swati_gs) October 5, 2023
I just talked to a student who sits at these tables. He is from a backward caste from UP pursuing research in Science.
He said the ‘protest’… pic.twitter.com/zubS4VYdx5
It must be mentioned that only 6 out of 129 tables in the dining area were reserved for vegetarian students while the remaining could be utilised by both vegetarian and non-vegetarian students. The decision was not taken by the administration of IIT-Bombay but by the students’ councils of Hostel 12, 13 and 14 along with elected representatives.
In an official mail on Thursday (5th October), it stated, “…Unlike some other institutions, IIT-Bombay does not have any separate vegetarian mess and does not plan to have one in the future.”
“There were reports of some students deliberately spilling non-veg food to cause discomfort to fellow students. Such provocative and insensitive actions are not acceptable,” the college administration noted.
Backed by the support of a leftist student collective ‘Ambedkar Periyar Phule Study Circle (APPSC),’ an unnamed miscreant ate non-vegetarian food in the section reserved for vegetarian students on September 28, 2023.
The development came a day after the new mess rules, reserving 6 out of 129 tables in the dining area, were communicated to the students by the mess councils of Hostels 12, 13 and 14.
In a bid to ‘protest’ the decision, the unnamed miscreant vowed to eat non-veg food in the ‘reserved vegetarian area’ and create chaos. Despite being persuaded by the Dean of IIT-Bombay against doing any such thing, he went ahead with his plans and violated the mess guidelines in the process.
Today, some residents of H12, 13, 14 protested peacefully against the unilateral decision to institutionalise segregated spaces resulting in ghettoization of mess areas with "individual civil disobedience" by taking non-veg food into the veg only designated spaces. https://t.co/LGiA5PU2Qq
— APPSC IIT Bombay (@AppscIITb) September 28, 2023
As a punishment, ₹10000 was deducted from his Semester Mess Advance (SMA). Usually, each student of IIT-Bombay pays around ₹25,000- ₹30,000 in advance as a mess fee. The mess council is now seeking help to identify the miscreants with the help of other students.
Earlier in July this year, a few students put up a poster in the canteen of Hostel 12, which read, “Vegetarian only are allowed to sit here.” Even though IIT-Bombay has no official food segregation policy, different seating arrangements are followed by students based on their food preferences.
While speaking about the matter, the warden of the hostel said that although there was a Jain food counter, there was no designated place for such students to consume Jain food.
Even though RTIs and mails for hostel GSec shows that there is no institute policy for food segregation, some individuals have taken it upon themselves to designate certain mess areas as "Vegetarians Only" and forcing other students to leave that area.#casteism #Discrimination pic.twitter.com/uFlB4FnHqi
— APPSC IIT Bombay (@AppscIITb) July 29, 2023
At that time, the leftist student collective ‘Ambedkar Periyar Phule Study Circle (APPSC) had dubbed the poster as a manifestation of caste discrimination. It also declared that an exclusive Jain sitting space was unacceptable and not allowing non-veg food there somehow violated values of ‘tolerance’ and ‘mutual respect.’
