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Correspondent

23 August 2024 at 9:59:04 pm

Legal Weapon

The death of Sahil Wakode at IIT Bombay is undoubtedly a tragic incident. It also raises a difficult question that should not be lost amid the understandable anger on campus: when does a genuine allegation of caste discrimination become a criminal charge, and what happens when the extraordinary force of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act is invoked before the facts have been established? Wakode, a second-year student, died by suicide last week, hours after he was caught using a mobile...

Legal Weapon

The death of Sahil Wakode at IIT Bombay is undoubtedly a tragic incident. It also raises a difficult question that should not be lost amid the understandable anger on campus: when does a genuine allegation of caste discrimination become a criminal charge, and what happens when the extraordinary force of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act is invoked before the facts have been established? Wakode, a second-year student, died by suicide last week, hours after he was caught using a mobile phone during an examination. IIT Bombay says he had uploaded the question paper to ChatGPT, but that no disciplinary proceedings had been initiated against him. He was counselled and assured that the incident would not damage his academic career. His parents have subsequently alleged that Wakode had been subjected to caste-based harassment for several months and named Professor Suryanarayana Doolla in an FIR alleging abetment to suicide, along with provisions of the SC/ST Act. The institute has denied that any complaint of caste discrimination was made by Wakode during his tenure. Its SC/ST cell has also said it received no such complaint. The investigation has now been transferred to the Crime Branch. The SC/ST Act exists because caste oppression is real, and victims require a law capable of confronting it. But precisely because the law is stringent, its invocation cannot become a substitute for evidence. The Supreme Court has repeatedly emphasised that the statutory ingredients of an offence must actually be made out. The court has also held that where a complaint does not prima facie disclose an offence under the Act, its stringent restrictions on pre-arrest bail do not automatically apply. Teachers must be able to enforce examination rules without fearing that every disciplinary confrontation could acquire a caste dimension. The tendency to turn a student’s caste into the explanation for every institutional conflict involving an SC/ST student is disturbing and must be resisted. If every disciplinary action involving a reserved-category student is presumed to be caste discrimination, the distinction between discrimination and ordinary institutional accountability begins to disappear. Equally, an institute cannot hide behind procedure if evidence eventually establishes discrimination or harassment. If Professor Doolla did indeed use casteist language, threatened Wakode or treated him differently because of his caste, those allegations must be investigated fully and dealt with under the law. But the answer cannot be to criminalise the invigilator first and investigate later. IIT Bombay now has two obligations: establish, without prejudice, what happened in those crucial hours and examine the broader pressures facing its students. The police must establish whether the allegations under the SC/ST Act have factual and legal substance. The institute must ensure that teachers can enforce academic integrity while students have credible avenues to report genuine discrimination. The tragedy demands accountability. It does not demand a predetermined culprit.

India won’t finalise trade pact at gunpoint: Piyush Goyal

Correspondent
Apr 12, 2025
3 min read


Union Minister Piyush Goyal has emphasized that India will not be pressured into any deal or make decisions under duress, especially when it involves safeguarding national interests. His statement follows US President Donald Trump's announcement of a 90-day pause on tariffs imposed on India — a move that is being seen as a limited opportunity for both nations to push forward a bilateral trade agreement still under negotiation.


"Humne pehle bhi kai baar kaha hai ki hum banduk rakhke kabhi negotiate nai karte hain. (I have said it many times before that we do not negotiate at the gunpoint)," Goyal told reporters when asked about the progress on the India-US bilateral trade agreement (BTA).


"Time restrictions are good as they encourage us to talk swiftly, but until we are able to protect the interests of the country and people, it is never good to be hasty," he added.


Goyal's remarks come at a time when India and the US have ramped up sector-specific discussions through virtual meetings, following the conclusion of broad-based terms of reference (ToRs) in New Delhi. These ToRs are aimed at supporting a “mutually beneficial, multi-sector” BTA, and focus on easing tariff and non-tariff barriers, improving market access, and strengthening supply chain resilience.


“We are progressing well on the BTA negotiations, and we expect to be ready with the first tranche of the agreement before the fall of 2025,” said a senior official familiar with the talks. “Possibly, the two countries would sign an early harvest deal where tariff and non-tariff issues will be addressed first.”


These negotiations are part of a larger strategic initiative set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump, aiming to increase bilateral trade from $200 billion to $500 billion by 2030 — an internal goal dubbed “Mission 500.”


Although Goyal recognized the importance of timelines to keep discussions on track, he warned against finalizing any deal in haste. “Time restrictions are good as they encourage us to negotiate swiftly,” he said, “but until we are able to protect the interests of the country and people, it is never good to be hasty.”


He also stated that “all trade talks of the country are progressing well in the spirit of ‘India first’ and to ensure the pathway to Viksit Bharat 2047.”


The first round of in-person negotiations, which took place in New Delhi from March 26 to 29, was led by Assistant US Trade Representative Brendan Lynch and India’s Additional Secretary Rajesh Agrawal. Officials described the meetings as “friendly and cordial,” with both sides expressing a shared commitment to finalize the first stage of the agreement by September.


Subsequent follow-up meetings have been held virtually to work through sector-specific details. While the full text of the ToRs remains confidential due to a non-disclosure agreement, sources familiar with the discussions say they offer a “wide scope” for a comprehensive agreement.


On Friday, Foreign Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, without disclosing specifics of the trade discussions, said that India is eager to conclude the deal soon.

"Within a month of change in the administration, we have conceptually an agreement that we will do a bilateral trade agreement; that we will find a fix that will work for both of us because we have our concerns too. And it's not an open-ended process," he said.


In a notable development, Washington has suspended an additional 16% reciprocal tariff on Indian goods — including a global baseline tariff of 10% introduced from April 2 — until July 9, 2025. This pause presents a critical opportunity for both sides to finalize major components of the agreement.

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