IIT-B students file complaint against professor over talks supporting Palestinian militants

Students from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay have filed a police complaint against a professor and a guest speaker, accusing them of expressing support for Palestinian militants during a virtual lecture.

The students, in a complaint lodged on Wednesday, demanded action against Professor Sharmistha Saha of the Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) department and guest speaker Sudhanva Deshpande for the talk held on November 6.

We denounce the blatant attempt by Professor Sharmistha Saha, under the pretext of academic course HS 835 Performance Theory & Praxis’ to host such hateful speakers to indoctrinate students with biased and factually false stories, a student told PTI. In their complaint letter to the police, students claimed that Saha had inappropriately used her position to invite Deshpande (a radical Leftist as part of her course work HS 835. The students claimed that Professor Deshpande had glorified Palestinian terrorist Zakaria Zubeidi, expressing concerns about the potential impact on the academic integrity and safety of IIT Bombay.

During the event, Deshpande made a statement that has raised significant concern. He not only admitted to having met Palestinian terrorist Zubeidi in 2015 but also defended and glorified violence and armed rebellion. Zubeidi is a known figure associated with the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an organisation designated as a terrorist entity by various governments and international organisations, including the United States, the European Union and Israel,” the letter stated.

The letter quoted Deshpande as saying that the Palestinian struggle is a freedom struggle. And there has been no struggle in the history of the world, in the history of colonialism that is entirely 100 per cent nonviolent. It is never! Indian freedom struggle was not 100 per cent non-violent and so on and so forth.