A student of Hindi journalism Rohin Kumar — suspended by the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) over his alleged “disrespectful” post on the social media — is not getting support from his classmates.
Most of the students spoken by The Pioneer strongly feel that the issue is being overblown by the media and it is bringing bad name to the premier media institute where students are getting ready for placement with the session just a month’s time away.
“’I read his Facebook post and found it baseless as it was not factual and none of our classmates, including me, is supporting him,” one of his batchmates said on condition of anonymity.
The IIMC suspended Rohin on ground of disobedience and violation of code of conduct of the institute.
“Rohin is being misled by some vested interests. He is just playing into the hands of people who do not have best intentions for the institution,” Director General of IIMC KG Suresh told The Pioneer.
He said the institute will not tolerate any form of indiscipline under the garb of freedom of speech and expression and the students must ensure that the institutions of higher learning are not turned into “political playground”.
In fact, some of Rohin’s batchmates too found his allegations baseless.
Pallavi Kumari, batchmate of Rohin and student of Hindi journalism, said, “The IIMC DG came to our classroom on Wednesday and told us that we can write anything on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook but we should be very meticulous and unbiased while we are writing something.”
When asked whether there was any discrimination against Rohin, his classmate said, “I have never witnessed any such thing in the institute.”
An IIMC official said, “I have been working with this institute since 1981 but have never seen such atmosphere as is now. It’s only for the last two years that people are trying to derive political benefits out of vested interests by provoking younger generation either on casteist or communal lines.”
When asked about the future course of action, the DG said, “The disciplinary committee which has been set up will take the final call and Rohin will get all the options to put forth his stand and concerns on any issue.”