Interview with Sai Varun Mula

(General Secretary Entrepreneurship / Professional Affairs)

WO: What is the PAN IIT Students’ Council? Who are its members?

Varun: The elected representatives of all IITs, who fall under their respective Student Councils form the PAN IIT Students’ Council.

WO: The General Secretaries of each IIT are recognised by the administration of the respective IIT. Is the PAN IIT Council similarly recognised?

Varun: We are not yet recognised by MHRD, like the Inter IIT Tech and Cultural Meets. It is recognised by the administration in a certain way, as the Director/DOSW of the host IIT sends invitations to all other IITs, in a similar way as invitations for Inter IIT Tech/Cultural Meet are sent.

WO: When and where did the last meeting take place?

Varun: The meeting was held on the 17th and 18th December at IIT Kharagpur.

WO: Who represented IIT Roorkee?

Varun: General Secretary Academic Affairs(UG) and General Secretary Professional/Entrepreneurship Affairs.

WO: Are the meetings frequent? Was this meeting convened just for the purpose of releasing the solidarity statement?

Varun: We have 2 more meets planned in the next semester. One at IIT Gandhinagar and one at IIT Hyderabad(tentatively). No, the agenda of the meeting was completely different. Due to recent happenings, this particular thing just came up and everyone felt the need to discuss it, and so we put it up for debate. We discussed many agendas related to Academics, Research, Entrepreneurship and Placements, among others.

WO: Whom does this document represent?

Varun: The decision is taken by Student Representatives of the Council. Even in the statement, it is explicitly mentioned that the student representatives stand in solidarity with the attacked students. This clearly does not represent the stand of an entire IIT.

WO: Can you tell us the process of reaching the decision that led to the publishing of this document?

Varun: Everyone took a vote. Each IIT had one vote. Every General Secretary’s stance on the issue was taken into consideration.

Minutes of the Meeting that took place on 17th December

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HVxrradFOa2g6edqDnhxG1LyuX6583l9pT4UK0Dlv00/edit