IIT Bombay sponsors a seminar on South Asian capitalism. The promotional poster features prominent BJP leaders, Modi, Shah, and Yogi, under the tagline “WE FOOL YOU.” Only a saffron-clad Hindu monk is shown, and no Maulana or Father appears. Clearly, symbolism has become political theatre, even within India’s premier technical institute.
When Education Turns Political
IITs were built to advance merit, innovation, and national development. Today, many campuses resemble caricatures of woke academia, professors don ideological uniforms and treat the classroom as a political pulpit. A humanities professor at IIT Bombay, Anupam Guha, is a case in point. This AI specialist has publicly condemned the abrogation of Article 370, questioned capitalism, and called state action “terrorism.” Such ideological posturing isn’t education, it’s indoctrination.
The “WE FOOL YOU” poster isn’t a one-off slip. It reflects this broader trend: IIT Bombay becoming a battleground for radical discourse, while genuine voices of scholarship, dissent, or national pride are sidelined.
Quiet Support for Deep-State Narratives
Consider how IITs enforce politics selectively. In 2023, IIT Bombay quietly banned unapproved political talks after a guest lecture on Palestine sparked unrest. Yet events mocking India’s leadership sail through, unchallenged. The message is clear: critique the country, not the dissent.
This mirrors the deep-state agenda unfolding in some American universities—free speech rituals exist, but only when aligned with partisan narratives. The “WE FOOL YOU” poster is just another symptom of this ideological capture.
Past Controversies: What They Teach Us
This is not the first time IITs have courted controversy:
-
IIT-Madras faced a backlash when leftist professors raised uncomfortable questions about caste and culture in academic spaces.
-
IIT Gandhinagar was recently accused of nepotism, where faculty appointments appeared to favor insiders through conflicts of interest.
These aren’t isolated missteps—they are patterns of privilege, ideological alignment, and institutional opacity.
IIT Before and After Modi: Lost Opportunities?
Under the UPA (pre-2014), there were about 16 IITs. Post-2014, 7 more were mainstreamed, making it 23 today. This dramatic expansion under PM Modi should have translated into a nationwide network producing patriotic engineers and innovators.
Instead, many campuses have become echo chambers for leftist rhetoric, mocking the same government that expanded their footprint and budget. It’s ironic: the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) fueled this growth, yet its leaders become objects of campus satire.
And it is not just “BJP leaders.” The poster openly mocked the Prime Minister, the Home Minister, and the Chief Minister. At the very least, an institution like IIT must show respect for the elected leadership of the nation, even if one disagrees politically.
Why This Matters: The Future Is in Classrooms
IITs shape India’s future policymakers, scientists, and entrepreneurs. When leftist professors dominate humanities departments and political slogans overshadow STEM ethics, our future civilizational trajectory warps. Education becomes a political tool, not a foundation for excellence.
If this poster had shown that the so-called minorities were the target, the reaction would be fury. But when Hindu-centric symbols are mocked, there’s silence, except for a few opinion pieces like this one.
Final Word
Institutes like IIT Bombay stand at a crossroads. Either they continue down this path, where symbols, scholarships, and students all become pawns, or they reclaim their sanctity as centres of merit, not ideology.
When a premier institution paints political bias under its banner, it doesn’t just mock leaders, it mocks the nation and its future. The reaction should be unanimous and firm: No politicization of learning. No more “WE FOOL YOU” campuses.
