Days after the ragging incident, IIT Mandi Director’s speech blaming meat eating for the Himachal Floods goes viral
It was hardly a day after alleged ragging incidents in the Indian Institute of Technology Mandi when another controversy dented the reputation of this emerging institute in Himachal Pradesh which was the only source of light for rain-hit state.
A speech that was delivered by Director of IIT Mandi Laxmidhar Behera recently (probably the day after the raging incidents), finds him in a highly moralistic tone.
The Director was heard saying “To become a good human being… What do you have to do ??? not meat eating, speak together (aik sath bolo) sounds not coming What ( awaj nehi aa raha kaya nehi pura dang sai bolo ) ….. yes Himachal Pradesh has significant downfall if innocent animals are killed… You are butchering them …that has a symbiotic relationship with environmental degradation as well. You can’t see now but it will have effects… these large-scale landslides and cloudburst… that you see again and again, is due to this large-scale cruelty”
It is interesting to know that this speech was made at a time when a joint team of IIT Roorkee and IIT Mandi were studying the reason and giving recommendations to the state and NHAI for recent heavy rain havoc. A separate team of GSI and IIT Mandi scientists are also studying the cracks that appeared in the many hills that are less prone to landslides.
IIT Mandi has emerged as a premier technological Institution in the last ten years due to its research and development activities and it remained in the headlines of media not only in the country but across the globe.
Two incidents on the campus in the last three days are likely to dent the image of IIT Mandi. Now this unscientific moralistic debate has been started by no other but the Director.
BJP Government in the country is changing the curriculum of the renowned educational institutions but the recruitment of the rightist faculties and victimization of other facilities members and academicians in institutions have dented the reputation alike.
Himachal Pradesh has six main universities including IIT Mandi. IIM Sirmaur, Dr. Y S Parmer Horticulture and Forestry University Nauni, Himachal Pradesh University Shimla.Central University at Dharmshala and Dr Sharwan Kumar Agriculture University Palampur. Other Educational institutions are still in their juvenile stage and suffering from the malaise of lack of faculties and proper funding by the government.
