From

4 March 2006

Dr. W.B.Vasantha Kandasamy

Department of Mathematics
Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai 600 036
Email: vasanthakandasamy@gmail.com
Web: http://www.vasantha.net
Phone: +9198401 30914 (cell)

To

HONOURABLE A.P.J. ABDUL KALAM

His Excellency, The President of India
Rashtrapathi Bhavan
New Delhi 110 001

Subject: Discrimination at IIT Madras-- Denial of Selection to Higher

Posts despite high qualification and 31 years research experience
including 17 years of continuous service at IIT because of being
a OBC woman scientist--Regarding

Respected and Honourable President,

I am working in the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras, Chennai in

the Department of Mathematics. Being the First Citizen of India, your Excellency is the
Visitor of all the IITs. Therefore I am writing this letter of appeal to your Honourable
self requesting you to kindly intervene and render justice to me.

I have 32 years of teaching & research experience, right from 1974 when I
completed my M.Sc. degree. I joined the IIT Madras in 1988 and even after 18
years in this institute till date I continue to be in the same designation despite my
exemplary qualifications. This denial of selection to higher posts has taken place
for the sole reason that I am a OBC woman scientist. I have throughout got First
Class in graduate and post-graduate degrees and I completed my Ph.D. in 1980, and my
thesis was highly commended by both the examiners. The following are my
qualifications:

Teaching & Research Experience: 32 years

Research Guidance: 15 Ph.Ds

51 M.Sc. and M.Tech. Research projects

Research Books published: 26 Books

(23 books published in the USA;

 3 books on AIDS published by the Tamil Nadu
State AIDS Control Society run by the State
Government)

Papers presented in National &

International Conferences and 633 Research Publications
Research Papers published in
National & International Journals:

I joined IIT Madras as a lecturer in the Mathematics department on 19 August 1988. I

had seven years of experience and I was earning more than the Professor cadre at IIT
Madras through my job in the University of Madras. I had completed my Ph.D. in 1981
itself. Though I had applied for the post of Assistant Professor, the then Director Dr.
N.V.C. Swamy selected me for the lecturer’s post, gave me seven increments and
promised to make me a professor during the next advertised recruitment.

The beginning of the problem

The quarters allotted to me after a few years in the IIT campus was separated from the
director bungalow by only one street in between. It was the month of December. Dr.
N.V.C. Swamy was the Director at that time. Hundred of cuckoos used to sing from the
tall mahogany trees situated in the sprawling several acre campus of the Directors
bungalow. Foxes howled in the cold months. The Director N.V.C. Swamy who felt that
his sleep was disturbed hired gypsies with country-guns and made them shoot down the
cuckoos and the foxes. For a few days, this hunt was on. Even ‘The Hindu’ newspaper
recorded this atrocity. This has been recorded even in the court cases. The dead
cuckoos where dumped into gunny / jute sacks. A few of the cuckoos that were shot,
dropped dead in the entrance of my home. They throbbed precariously and lost their
lives.

Unable to bear this cruelty taking place before my eyes, I took my neighbour Prof.
Neelakantan (a cuckoo had dropped dead in front of his home too) and went to Dr.
NVC Swamy’s house and told him that ‘nobody should shoot cuckoos’. He shouted at
me, “How dare you question me? Do you know who I am?” saying so, he threatened
me. I and Prof. Neelakantan represented to the wildlife warden and put an end to the
cuckoo shooting.

Dr. NVC. Swamy who destroyed cuckoos and foxes and the valuable mahogany, also
set out to destroy my life.

Because he continued as the IIT director after the expiry of his team (cheating the
Government of India), the faculty association of IIT Madras itself had to file a writ
petition (WP No. 15486 / 95) in the High Court of Madras. The writ petition became
infructuous after Swamy resigned from the position.

Bhatnagar Prize

Your honourable self will know that the greatest award given to Indian Scientists
below the age of 45 years is the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Awards. You will also know
that it is called the Indian Nobel prize. It is a basic eligibility criteria for the award that
only a scientist who has spent the preceding five years within India will have his/her
nomination considered.

For such an important award, the IIT administration considered me as the fit candidate
and nominated me, from the institute. Nobody can individually apply for the award
without being nominated by an institution. In 1995, when Prof. NVC Swamy the
director was abroad, a committee consisting of IIT Professors under the chairmanship
the dean of the Academic research C.S.Krishnamurthy recommended me on behalf of
the IIT for the Bhatnagar prize. NVC. Swamy who came to know of this on his return
to Chennai then left for Delhi to stall my nomination. This information was widely
spoken about within IIT. For the convocation ceremony in IIT same year Dr.
R.A.Mashelkar – The director General of CSIR – the scientific body which gives the
Bhatnagar awards was invited. Since the first 40 years of the inception of IIT madras,
no body from the institute had won this Bhatnagar Prize. If I had won this award in
1996, I would have been the first faculty member from IIT to have won this award.
This award which was instituted to encourage scientist working in India, was given to
Dr. V.S.Sunder in violation of the basic eligibility criteria on 26 September 1996. I was
working in India, Dr. Sunder was working in Japan.

The American Mathematical Society annually publishes indexed details of all the
papers published in mathematical journals throughout the world three months after the
award, in December, the AMS annual author index was published. In the year of the
award (1996) alone, 32 of my research papers that were published in various
mathematical journals around the world were reviewed (citied in the AM Reviews –
making me the first in the world. The awardee Dr. S.Sunder had individually authored
one paper and had co-authored another paper. The Nakkheeran magazine had (boldly)
written a news-item on this: “Scientific World in a Shock” (Adhirchi Ulagil Ariviyal
Ulagam). The Nandan magazine interviewed him and said that he knew how to play
the violin. Magazines like Dalit Murasu, Dinamani, Sinthanaiyalan, Aval Vikatan,
Sangoli, Mugam, Police Seithi, Unarvu, Tamil Arasi, Indian Express, The Week – also
wrote several articles on this topic.

The followers of Periyar and Ambedkar launched agitations to save me. Pazha
Nedumaran, Dr. Veeramani, Era Anbarasu, ex.MP, Kolathur Mani, Naa. Arunachalam,
Anoor Jagadeesan, Viduthalai Rajendran, Prof. Saraswathi, Dr. Ramadoss, Nallakannu,
Vaiko, Thirumavalavan, Suba. Veerapandiyan, Thiagu, Prof. Kalyani, A. Marx,
Sakthidasan, Balaguru, Thanjai Ilansingham, S.Natarajan, Sanghamitra, late comrade
Badri, – everybody has struggled to remove the injustice done to me.

I have borne this everyday torture and harassment, sorrow and mental agony and have
so far published 640 research papers in various international journals and mathematical
conferences. I have made 15 Ph.D students obtain their degrees (or under guidance) in
various branches of mathematics. I have completed guidance of 46 M.Sc / M.Tech post
graduate dissertations, and without even a small error my mathematical career has been
progressing.

Above all this, 21 of my research books have been published in the USA. I have
ensured that all my books can be downloaded free of cost from the internet. Everyday,
I receive e-mails of appreciation from Mathematicians around the world. I place before
you a few of them.
Prof.Bart Kosko, Ph.D. (Father of fuzzy neural networks), Dept. of Electrical Engineering,
Systems, signal and Image Processing Institute, University of Southern California, USA.
kosko@usc.edu
“I just found your online book on Fuzzy Cognitive Maps (FCMs). Well done, I am very
impressed. Again my congratulations on your achievement.”
***

Prof. Michale Aristidou of Digipen Institute of Technology, Redmond, USA.

Maristidou@digipen.edu
“I have visited your website online and I have seen your remarkable work which I
truly admire. It is also very generous of you to provide free copies of your book via the
internet. I immediately printed out your book on Smarandache Fuzzy Algebra and was very
happy to see it. ...”
***

Nischal Verma, Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT Delhi. nischal@ee.iitd.ernet.in

“After going through many research papers and books on Neutrosophic logics where I
found your contribution is quite significant, I find myself very much interested to apply
Neutrosophic logics in Control Engineering area for this cause.”
***

P.J. Allen, Professor of Mathematics, University of Alabama, USA. jbunnypeach@hotmail.com

“I have enjoyed reading your textbook “Smarandache Semigroups” and I must tell you
that I am very impressed with the presentation of S-semigroups.”
***

A QUESITON TO PROFESSORS IN I.I.T.'S

WHY Vasantha WB was not promoted as Professor ?
VANAKKAM ! I have visited the website of I.I.T., Chennai(Madras). India is a democratic
country. I has the right to ask the following questions.
Q1. Why some professors don’t like to provide the details of their publications?
Professors:1. Kalpakam S 2. Choudum SA 3. Rangan A 4. Parthasarathy PR 5.
Subrahmanyam PV 6. Usha R 7. Veeramani P
Associate Professors: 1. Rama R 2. Arindama Singh 3. Kamath SG 4. Sundar S 5. Vetrivel V
6. Ponnusamy S
Assistant Professors: 1. Srinivasa Rao CH 2. Radha R 3. Sivakumar KC
Q2.Why do some professors provide “SOME RECENT PUBLICATIONS” but not all of their
publications?
Professors:1. Prof. A. Avudainayagam 2. Kulkarni SH 3. M.Thamban Nair
My Observation: They might have been feeling inferiority complex (Of course about
W.B. Vasantha zee). Vasantha WB has published number of research papers but still she is
Assistant Professor !. It is very very bad. I suggest all the Professors and Associate Professors(
except Satyajit Roy in the above list to submit their resignations. There are several persons who
are doing good research in India.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I would like to appreciate the following persons for providing their research details in the
website. Associate Professors: 1. Satyajit Roy 2. Sanyasiraju YVSS 3. Vasantha WB
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
M.K.R.S. VEERA KUMAR
Lecturer, P.G.Department of Mathematics
J.K.C. COLLEGE, GUNTUR-522 006
ANDHRA PRADESH, INDIA
CELL PHONE NO. 9849569109 (Available between 5.00PM and 8.AM)
I have only one question; “I was selected by IIT administration as being a suitable for
Indian Nobel Prize. But how was I not selected for an ordinary professor post in the
same institute –only because I was a Backward Class woman? If there is any scientist
abroad who is more qualified than me, and it is brought to my knowledge, I shall leave
India.

Harassment in the Institute

When I joined the Mathematics Department IIT in 1988, Dr. S.N. Majhi was Assistant
professor. He had been a Technical assistant in IIT, then he became an Assistant
Professor without even becoming an Associate Professor, he directly got double
promotion and become a professor. The expert who came to select him was own
classmate. His only qualification is that in all his papers, he will add NVC Swamy (the
director) name as the co-author. Majhi was a mathematician; Swamy was an applied
mechanics engineer. What was the connection between the two subjects? One day
Majhi became my Head of Department. One day Dr.S.N.Majhi came to my room and
asked me shamelessly to add his name in my papers –– I had been writing the highest
number of research papers in my department. I asked him to leave my room. When I
talked about this to the office, they said that only through crow catching he had become
a professor through double promotion and an HOD soon after. This is what happens in
the IIT Madras. This is the way in which committees are appointed.

Why should I add the HOD or anybody’s name in papers which are products of my
hard labour? This information spread all over IIT. While I was in discussions with my
students, Dr.S.N.Majhi came into my room suddenly and said,

“You are becoming, a headache day by day. You would become mad
and will land up asking other professor to be co-authors in your
publications.”

My Ph.D. students who were present at this scene, spread this to other students and in a
short time, the whole institute came to know about this. In whatever way possible, Dr.
S.N.Mahji troubled me by taking the support of the director Dr. NVC. Swamy. In
faculty meetings in front of everybody he used to shout at me, “Go out of the meeting”.
I clearly knew that this was at the behest of the Director’s instigation when I reported
to important people in the campus, they asked me not to blow-up these issues.

It was customary for Dr. Majhi to stand outside the HOD’s office (Which is adjacent to
my room) and shout with in my earshot, “If anybody opposes my power and my
decisions. I will ruin their life”, He made it his entertainment to often come into my
room and use abusive words and tease me. It was real torture for me.

In several ingenious ways, the director NVC Swamy and Dr. S.N. Majhi harassed me
as a gang. It is impossible to describe in words the torture I underwent as they ordered
me to vacate my office room. Seven times my office room was shifted in their tenure.
After a point, I said it was possible to shift my room. After two years at IIT, in 1990 all
the lecturers in all the IITs were promoted as Assistant Professors. Even I became an
Assistant Professor. This is the only promotion which I have got till today. None of the
increments which I had got earlier were not included following my promotion. Though
the then Head of Department Dr. P.Achuthan recommended my case, there was no use.
Selections in 1989, 1990 and 1992

Director NVC Swamy deliberately removed my field of specialization from the

advertisements issued in the years 1989, 1990 and 1992 for professor post in
mathematics just to ensure that I could not apply. These are the advertisement
numbers: IITM/R8/89 Dated 8.9.1989, IITM/R8/90 Dated 27.7.1990 and IITM/R/7/92
Dated 14.9.1992.

Even at that time, I had sixteen years of research and teaching experience. I had
published several papers. Every time an advertisement was issued, I would go and meet
the director and remind him that he had promised to me in 1988 that he would make
me a professor through the net advertisement. He used to tease and dishonour me. This
had become customary.

In 1990, because I was unable to apply due to their manipulations, I approached the
then IIT Chairman Dr. A.L. Mudaliar. Because he interfered, the IIT dean
Administration Dr. Aaravamudhan sent me a letter labeled most urgent dated
31.12.1990 which did not contain any salutation (sir or madam) and had asked for
copies of my research papers. I made ready my research papers. I made ready my
research papers and sent them in four volumes on the same day. I was asked to meet
Dr. NVC Swamy in person after a few days, When I meet him he said, “As long as I
occupy this chair, you will not get any promotion/selection to higher post. You can
take this matter to anybody.” Only then I came to know that Dr. A.L. Mudaliar’s
Chairmanship had come to an end and M.S.Swaminathan had become the new
chairman. In 1990, though I underwent so much of harassment, even in 1992 my
specialization Algebra was not advertised. All my repeated pleas to the chairman
M.S.Swaminathan were in vain. Whenever I see his photographs in newspapers, I
wonder if he would have been as careless in my own case if only I had been a Brahmin
woman.

1995 selections

Then in 1995, applications were called for the post of professor and Associate
Professor in IIT Madras. After seven long years of my struggle, finally my field of
specialization was advertised. So I applied. Because I was not selected for the
Associate Professor’s post despite my qualifications, I again appealed to the Chairman
M.S.Swaminathan. No action was taken, or reply given, to my three letters dated
5.10.1995, 19.10.1995 and 3.11.1995.

Because NVC.Swamy called me to meet him personally several times and behaved in a
manner that was denigrating to my self-respect, I appealed to the faculty Association of
IIT Madras When the office bearers of the faculty association represented my case to
the director, he fumed in anger and again called me personally to threaten me. The
President of the Faculty Association told me, “From now don’t go alone! One of us
will come with you.” I told the director that I would meet him only along with a
representation from the faculty Association. So, I was called again and the appointment
was cancelled.

In the interview conducted in 1995, there was no subject expert in Algebra (my field of
Specialization) in the interview committee. Likewise, there were no experts for
Dr.S.Subramanian of the Humanities department and Dr. S.P. Subramaniam of the
Ocean Engineering department. The Faculty Association took up this matter. First
these two people were not selected as Associate Professors. Later, NVC Swamy put up
some namesake committee made them Associate Professors.

When I went to the director’s office to question why a new committee was not put for
me, the Director declined to meet me, He merely sent word through his secretary, that I
can approach anybody. This happened ten years ago. In 1995 this last attempt took
place merely to call me for a job interview and then insult me. This took place just a
few months before Dr. NVC Swamy’s tenure as the Director came to an end. I was
called in last for the interview and harassed in all possible ways. As expected, persons
of the “upper caste” who did not even fulfill the mandatory qualifications required to
apply for the post were selected. The advertisement asked for a first class in M.Sc. But
two people, one with a second class in M.Sc and another with no Ph.D or postgraduate
guidance were selected. Both of them were from upper caste. Opposing this injustice I
sent a memorandum to the then Indian President Shri. Shankar Dayal Sharma and the
then Prime minister Shri. Narasimha Rao through the faculty association. The
Secretary of the faculty Association Dr. V.S.Murthy wrote,

“On behalf of Faculty Association, I request the Hon’ble Prime

Minister to render justice to this deserving candidate, Dr. W.B.Vasantha
by ordering the IIT Madras to take necessary steps.”

When these ‘upper’ caste people selected for a higher post, I had 91 selected papers in
hand. I had 2 Ph.D guidance; two students were working under my guidance for Ph.D.
8 M.Sc. scholars had completed their dissertations and 2 M.Sc students’ project
dissertations were ongoing. I am duty bound to inform you that those who were
selected did not have any of these qualifications.

Unable to tolerate the harassment that I underwent at the hands of the HOD under the
instigation of the director Dr. N.V.C. Swamy, the professors of my department
individually and jointly wrote letters to the director and to the leaders of the Faculty
Association. Here I cite a few lines from the letter written by Prof. Bhattacharya (who
in later days became the Vice Chancellor of the Dispur University)

“We are also concerned at the unnecessary Harassment, the head

frequently subjects Dr. (Mrs.) Vasantha to. Unless the Head of the
Department is made to restrain himself, this situation may create
problems for the institute. I therefore request you to take a serious look
at the happenings of our department and do the needful from the point
of view of the academic interests of the department and the larger
interests of the Institute.”

How will the director inquire into something which he himself instigated? How will
justice be done? When my lawyers sent a legal notice on 5.12.1995. I received such a
reply on 22.2.1996.

“We are in receipt of your notice dated 5th December, 1995 sent
through your lawyers. In the meantime, since talks are going on
between you and the director, the reply will be sent to you for your
notice after the talks are over.”
It is surprising because neither was my legal notice replied nor talks were held – even
till today. In only one way, I got my strength. Four months later, when a fresh
application was issued for the Professor’s post on 29.6.1996, my field of specialization
Algebra was included.

1996 selections

In October 1996, I was invited for the interview to the Professor’s post. It is pertinent
to mention that I had applied only for the Professor’s post. I already knew that I would
be disgraced even in this interview. On 18.12.1996, I was sent a letter of appointment
stating that I was selected not for the Professor’s post but for the Associate Professor’s
post. So I joined the post of Associate Professor with a joining letter that read as
follows:

“I hereby join the post of Associate professor in Mathematics

Department without prejudice to my rights to challenge the selection for
the post of Professor in 1996.”

I gave this and also obtained the acknowledgement receipt from the department. I was
in a crucial situation, where it was impossible for me to give other kind of letter. Only
if I said in the same letter that I accepted the appointment but I would challenge the
selection process, the Hon’ble court would admit my writ petition. I could not approach
the court giving two separate letters to the institute – I was advised so by retired
Supreme Court judges and the advocates of the century old legal firm “King and
Partridge.”

In the meanwhile, Dr.R.Natarajan who was the (next) Director sent a letter of
appreciation calling me “A good teacher” – in that letter I was addressed as an
Associate professor. Even in a pamphlet published by the Mathematics Department I
was designated as Associate Professor. Even in my Library card, I was designated as
associate professor and given a new card.

Because I had also challenged the Bhatnagar awards in the High Court (WP. No. 2675 /
97), the then Director Dr. NVC Swamy worked behind the screens to terminate me
from the institute. In this interval, efforts were on to remove me from my position by
foisting false charges and instituting a commission of domestic inquiry and thus
dismiss me. So, I filed two writ petitions. (WP No. 4256/97 and 4257/97) challenging
the selections conducted for the post of Associate Professor in 1995 by Director N.V.C.
Swamy and the selections conducted for the post of Professor in 1996 by the Director
R Natarajan. I also obtained a stay order from the Hon’ble Court to secure my position
as Associate Professor from being terminated. These are the words of the High Court
Order:

“ORDER: This petition coming on for hearing upon perusing the

petition and the affidavit filed in support of W.P.No.4257/97 on the file
of the High Court, and the order of this court dt.27-3-97 and made
herein and upon hearing the arguments of Mr.Ranganatha Reddy of
M/s. Kind and Partridge, Advocates for the petitioner and notice sent to
respondents not having been returned either served or unserved, it is
ordered that the interim injunction restraining the respondents 1 and 2
 from terminating the services of the petitioner from the post of Associate
Professor, granted in and by the order of this court dated 27-3-1997
and made herein be and hereby is extended until further orders.”

Because this High Court order is in force as on date, I am not terminated from my
services in the Institute.

Right from the day I joined the institute, in the monthly salary slip only my name and
department used to be mentioned and never the designation. After I approached the
court, the words Assistant Professor were stuck to my name. Not only being satisfied
with this, the Director R Natarajan saw to it that I was designated as an Assistant
Professor in every communication. They had made me an Associate Professor. They
had given the appointment. After I approached the court I was not given any increment
nor was I designated as an Associate Professor. They thus made me an Assistant
Professor. Till today, I serve only as an Assistant Professor.

Further harassment

In the Mathematics department, the faculty members who had succeeded in becoming
Professors due to favoritism used to prefix their name with the word ‘Prof.’ and only
put ‘Dr.’ in front of my name. This was the practice followed in each and every
circular.

Thinking that all this would insult me, they sent such letters everyday. Even today,
such a custom continues.

The Directors used to appoint their “yes” men as the Head of the Department for a
period of three years. Using the Head of Department, they would ensure that I was not
given students for Ph.D. guidance. Fighting for this took away half my time. They even
put a new rule that no more than two M.Sc. students can work under a faculty for the
completion of their project. During the years I spent fighting the institute, every year 8
or 10 students would come to me to have their M.Sc. projects done. Till now, 46 M.Sc.
and M.Tech. project dissertations have been submitted under my guidance.

It is pertinent to mention here that not even half the number of students went to any
Professor in the department. This was the prize for my intelligence. This shows that I
was popular among the students.

On another side, I was not allowed to teach students my subjects of specialization and
made non-experts who didn’t specialize in algebra to handle the classes. This was the
first stage. As the second stage, they removed important portions from the algebra
syllabus. Now, without my approval, they dropped the course, “Modern Applied
Algebra” from the curriculum itself. This was done just to insult and humiliate me.

In the midst of this, I had submitted a proposal to the Indian Space Research
Organization (ISRO) in 1995. It was about new mathematical and coding theory
techniques to be used in satellite communication. I had asked for a sanction of Rs.7.77
lakh. I received a reply from the ISRO.

“This research work is relevant and useful for mobile and personal
satellite communication links which is being carried out at ISRO.”
My collaborator from the sponsoring agency was Dr.R.Ramani, a Joint Director of the
Bangalore, ISRO. After extreme delay from the IIT administration. I was given just an
initial sanction of one lakh rupees to begin my work. They didn’t grant me an
extension or the remaining amount. As the next stage, I submitted another project on
advanced codes that could be used in satellite communication. On 18.11.1999, the
Director Dr.R.Natarajan prevented me from explaining my project in front of
everybody present. I went and personally said to the ISRO Director K.Ramamurthy,
“The Director is biased against me.” Seeing this, R.Natarajan got extremely furious and
said, “I will place you before the Board of Governors.” He then went on to say that all
the committee members were on his side. I said that I would bring (such harassment) to
the notice of the Parliament and the Board of Governors).

Later, an AIADMK leader and Rajya Sabha M.P. Dr.V.Maitreyan who was then a
member of the Board of Governors, IIT had called for me.

He narrated to me, the happenings at the Board meeting and said that Natarajan had
teased me as a “Pombalai Periyar (Lady Periyar)” He also added with happiness that
the then Chairman U.R.Rao had said that no action be taken against me.
Dr.V.Maitreyan asked me to go and meet Dr.Natarajan the IIT Director and tender a
word of apology. “Your salary arrears for several years runs into lakhs. You can get it
immediately.” I said that I would not apologize. This conversation took place in
Dr.V.Maitreyan’s Besant Nagar residence. The person who took me there was someone
very close to the Chief Minister Jayalalitha.

Because they could not compel me to issue an apology, they created false documents
and foisted false allegations against me. So on 31.01.2000, the Director R.Natarajan
sent me a letter containing other letters as enclosures. Even in that letter, he had
written,

“I did not write to you at that time since I felt that you would come
forward and tender an unconditional apology to all concerned; you
have not done so till now.”

I was unable to understand why I should apologize when I had not committed any
mistake.

In this period, I received an obscene and humiliating letter from the Registrar of the IIT
Madras on 31.12.1999. Dr.R.Natarajan had been instrumental in issuing this letter to
me. Because I was being continuously harassed like this, left with no other option, I
approached the High Court of Madras seeking damages to the tune of Rs.25 lakhs for
the continuous harassment I was subjected to.

In February 2000, I personally argued the case, and narrated the events to the learned
judge. The writ petition (W.P.No.3251/2000) was admitted and it is pending as on date.

Professor Recruitment in 2000

While all this was taking place, an interview for the Professor’s post was advertised on
3.11.1999. Again applications were called for Algebra. Even I had applied for the
same. Ten months later, I received a letter on 16.8.2000 calling me for the interview for
the Professor’s post. Following this, I wrote a letter to the Registrar on 12 September
2000. At that time, I requested that the Director R.Natarajan must not be part of my
Selection Committee. But during my interview, Dr. R. Natarajan sat in the committee
and asked me several unrelated questions. My whole interview was videographed. Like
a prisoner being taken to jail, two security officers took me to the place of interview.
When members of the committee who were not experts in my field put forth wrong
questions I told them that their questions were erroneous. While I had filed a writ
petition in 1997 challenging the selection of Dr.A.Rangan, a second class M.Sc. holder
as an Associate Professor, he was made a Professor in the selections held in 2000.
Moreover, Dr.Mrs.Usha and Dr.S.A.Choudam, who had hardly six years service in IIT
Madras were made Professors.

I have only one question. I am sure that even if all the qualifications of the three people
who were selected as Professors in the Mathematics Department were added up, it
would not compare with mine. Likewise, I also wish to state that with the exception of
Ph.D. and post-graduate guidance, if all the research papers and books of all the faculty
members in my department is added up, I will certainly lead by a large margin.

For the selections held for the post of Professor in the Department of Mathematics in
2000, my own colleagues who were Professors awarded marks to me for my seminar
talk which was a part of the interview. You can understand the torment that I would
have underwent. Nowhere in the Act and Statutes has such a practice been mentioned
or sanctioned.

The subject ‘expert’ who came to judge me in the selections held for the post of
Professor in 1996, was again called as my subject expert in 2000. His area of expertise
and mine were far apart. He had not even guided one Ph.D. student in Algebra. He did
not even ask me a single question in the interview. Besides, three of his Ph.D. students
at IIT Mumbai are Mathematics Professors in my own department.

In the IIT Act and Statutes, only five people are allowed to sit in the Selection
Committee for the post of Professors. But 7 people were there in the committee that
interviewed me.

In the 2000 selections, 43 faculty members from IIT were made Professors. Only I was
not selected as a Professor—because I was an OBC woman.

The interviews took place from 11 September 2000 to 25 September 2000 in the IIT
Madras. On the night of 25 September 2000, all the selected faculty members were
given their appointment orders. The very next day, they submitted their joining letters.

Opposing this, I approached the High Court and sought for the proceedings to be
quashed (W.P. 17835 of 2000). 3 years later, on 3.1.2003, the court ordered

“It is reported that the very selection was completed and the candidates
were selected and therefore, nothing survives in the writ petition. Hence
both the writ petition and WMP Nos.25852 and 25853 of 2002 are
dismissed.”

These cruelties apart, several other forms of harassment taken place. All faculty
members of the Institute are given free telephones at their home and office by the IIT
itself. The telephone lines kept in my residence and office were cut and the instruments
were taken away during the tenure of Dr.R.Natarajan as Director. Till today, I have not
been given a telephone. But they have deliberately printed two phone numbers against
my name in the Chennai Telephone Directory and the IIT Institute Telephone
Directory. On 2.11.2005, two institute staff came to place a telephone in my office
room. When I said that they could place it upon giving me a letter to the effect that they
were doing so after so many years and that a writ petition which dealt with this issue
was pending in the court. So they just left without providing any telephone.

Harassment of my students

The management and administration of IIT Madras ensured that the students who came
to join Ph.D. under me were not allowed to join me. I will narrate the story of a Dalit
student who did his Ph.D under my guidance and who was not allocated an office room
all through his stay on the campus. That Dalit student was not selected when he first
appeared for an interview in 1997. I had to fight a lot and secure him an admission for
doing Ph.D. in the Mathematics Department. The harassment which he underwent are
unspeakable. This happened in 1997. This was recorded in a lot of newspapers of that
time. None of my 9 Ph.D. students were given any appointment in any of the IITs. But
my students have got jobs in Japan, German, France, USA and in the Defence Research
Development Organization (DRDO) of the Indian Government. While my students
themselves have become Professors, I continue to be an Assistant Professor.

Quarters Allocation in IIT Madras

The quarters in IIT Campus are divided into types A, B, C, C1, C2, D, E, E1, F, X, and
Z. These quarters are allocated on the basis of designation and seniority. A type
quarters is for the Director. B and C are allocated to Professors and Associate
Professors. But I have been staying for the past 16 years in a D-type quarters. I was not
allocated a larger house. Those who were several years my juniors have been allocated
larger residences. In the block in which I live, research scholars, a clerk, two people
working in the library are staying. In order to humiliate me further, the IIT
administration said that they would realign and reduce the fences of D-type quarters in
order to enable the free movement of deer. So they reduced my fence. But no fence
reduction was done for any other quarters. On a holiday (Saturday) while I and my
husband were not at home, permanent employees of the IIT Madras and security
personnel of the IIT Madras came to my residence and attempted to remove the fence
and misbehaved with my daughter. So, a police complaint had to be lodged against
Dr.M.S. Ananth, the IIT Director who was responsible for all this. I was also
constrained to move the Hon’ble Court and obtain a stay order to prevent the refencing
and shrinkage of my compound.

In the circular issued within the IIT Campus, they had said that refencing would be
done for the D-type quarters initially and subsequently for the other types. On this
basis, they approached the Hon’ble High Court and removed my stay. It was mentioned
in the order that

“Learned Senior Counsel appearing for the respondents contended that

the realignment of the fence is not taken in respect of the petitioner’s
quarters alone, but a general decision has been taken to realign the
 fence so as to enable the free movement of the deers which are available
in the campus of the respondents. All others have co-operated to such
realignment, but the petitioner alone is not cooperating but imputing
reasons for such realignment.”

But what happens in the IIT Madras is different. The fence has not been shrunk for any
other type of quarters. It became customary that I was disgraced everytime I
approached the court. I applied for the higher type of quarters of C-type (C-3-5, II
Cross Road). The IIT started to demolish it and construction activity has been going on
endlessly there for more than the past one year.

Even my name should not appear…

“Campus News”—is a news bulletin for internal circulation within the IIT Campus. It
is published every Friday by the IIT Director’s office. It is an A4 sheet folded into two.
Every employee of the IIT gets a copy of the Campus News. The Director of the
Institute is the Publisher. Details of forthcoming seminars, projects and papers
presented by the faculty members in other institutions, the faculty recruitment taking
place at the IIT Madras, the weekly cinema being screened in the Institute’s Open Air
Theatre, temple events, proverbs used to find place in this Campus News.

Some weeks, when no information is available, the Campus News would be printed on
half an A4 sheet. I and my doctoral students used to present a lot of papers in
Mathematical conferences held in India and abroad. They used to publish information
about it in the Campus News also. (So far, I have along with my students presented 329
research papers in Mathematical Conferences). The Director R. Natarajan planned to
stop this because all the staff members of the IIT Campus came to know about my
research.

In the year 1997, from the 400 faculty members in IIT Madras, only 40 research papers
had been submitted in conferences. I and my students had together presented 18 out of
this 40. One of the papers of ours had even been presented in Yugoslavia. 400 faculty
members of the IIT Madras had only presented 22 (40-18 = 22) papers.

In 1998, in the first week of the month of March, an international conference took
place at the Banaras Hindu University. I and my students submitted three papers to that
conference. (The information that the IIT refused to publish—in that international
conference, proceedings of selected papers were published. My papers alone occupied
one third of the total number of pages.) When I asked them to publish that news in the
Campus News, the Director’s secretary told me, “Nowadays such information is not
published in the Campus News. It is not being published in the supervision of the
Director, some other Professor looks into it.”

I asked the Director “when you publish cinema news, why don’t you publish research
news?” Because there was no proper reply, I had to go the High Court. A few years
later, they submitted a totally fabricated, forged document to the court that contained
false signatures of the Deans, HoDs and other important administrative officers.

They said that through this document they had agreed upon publishing such research
related information. This document’s xerox copy was supplied to the Madras High
Court by the Director R.Natarajan.
The IIT revenged me by supplying fabricated documents to the High Court. I was
betrayed, even though I appealed at the High Court. I preserve these false documents as
evidence of the extent to which the IIT would go. I wish to state that anyone with a
sense of shame will not submit false documents to the court.

This is a brief narration of the endless atrocities that I have suffered in the IIT Madras.

Prayer

I have been working as an Assistant Professor despite having 32 years of research and
teaching experience and other meritorious qualifications. I have so far written over 70
letters of appeal to various higher authorities, but they have all been in vain. In spite of
my immense research contribution, for the sole reason that I fought for the correct
implementation of reservation policies in IIT-Madras, I was revenged and denied all
further selections and for 18 years I have been serving on the same pay scale and cadre.
My repeated pleas for justice have fallen on deaf ears.

Your Excellency, the President of India is the Visitor of the IITs. The Act and
Statutes of the IIT Madras allows victimized members of the Institute to appeal to the
President as a last resort. In Act 59 of 1961 (Institute of Technology Act 1961) enacted
by the Parliament, Chapter 2, Section 9, Act 9 states as follows:

1. The President of India shall be the Visitor of every Institute.

2. The Visitor may appoint one or more persons to review the work and progress
of any Institute and to hold inquiries into the affairs thereof and to report
thereon in such a manner as the Visitor may direct.
3. Upon receipt of any such report, the Visitor may take such action and issue
such directions as he considers necessary in respect of any of the matters dealt
with in the report and the Institute shall be bound to comply with such
directions.

Therefore your honourable self has the authority and power to intervene and
render justice to me. I kindly request you to look into my matter and ensure that I am
given my due selection as Professor from 1993 (when I was nominated for the
Bhatnagar Prize by the IIT) onwards. As the esteemed President of India and the
Visitor of the IIT Madras, please render justice to me so that I can live with self-
respect and dignity. Since I was denied the Bhatnagar Prize that is currently pending
as a writ appeal in the High Court, I request you as the President of India to grant me
the Bhatnagar prize or to bestow some official honour upon me and undo the injustice
that has been done to me.

Anticipating your kind action in this regard.

Thanking you,

Sincerely yours,

(W. B. VASANTHA)