Never approached JNU faculty for recruitment citing deteriorating situation, says IIT Delhi

An e-mail purportedly sent by IIT Delhi Director V Ramgopal Rao in December to the institutes’ deans suggesting recruitment of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) faculty went viral earlier this week. Read on to know more..

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) here on Saturday denied approaching JNU faculty members for recruitment citing “deteriorating situation in the university”.

An e-mail purportedly sent by IIT-Delhi Director V Ramgopal Rao in December to the institutes’ deans suggesting recruitment of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) faculty went viral earlier this week. “There are news items making rounds that IIT-Delhi is actively seeking to recruit faculty from JNU. This narrative is based on an e-mail I am supposed to have sent to heads of departments to encourage them to do so,” Rao said in a Facebook post.

“Any sane person would know that there is indeed very little overlap in research areas between JNU and IIT-Delhi. To say that IIT is actively seeking faculty from JNU is far from truth and a distorted way of looking at things,” he added. According to the e-mail purportedly sent by Rao on December 19 last year, “I am receiving feelers from senior JNU faculty showing willingness to move to IIT-Delhi considering the deteriorating situation in JNU.” “It will be a pity, if we lose out on good talent because of any reason or perception,” the said e-mail read. The institute also issued an official statement on Saturday denying the move. “It is to clarify that IIT-Delhi has never approached faculty members of the ‘specific’ educational institution in the country to join us. Recruitment for all positions is through an open advertisement process,” it said.