IIT Delhi director RK Shevgaonkar quit after he was insulted: Anil Kakodkar

NEW DELHI: Nuclear scientist Anil Kakodkar has come out in support of IIT Delhi director saying that RK Shevgaonkar resigned because he felt humiliated and his self-respect was "severely hurt". "I feel very sorry for him. I know him personally. He is a well respected academician and all his students and faculty will vouch for him. I have spoken to him. All of us have some minimum self-respect. In his case it was severely hurt," Kakodkar, who completed his term as IIT Bombay chairman this month, told NDTV in an interview on Friday.

Shevgaonkar had resigned on December 22 last year citing personal reasons.

Media reports, however, suggested that he was reportedly unhappy as he was under pressure from the government to release salary dues to former faculty member and now BJP leader Subramanian Swamy.

Although Kakodkar refused to elaborate the circumstances under which Shevgaonkar had to quit the post, he shot down HRD ministry’s allegations regarding the legality of IIT Delhi’s Mauritius campus. "The dirt thrown at him over the Mauritius campus was wrong and unfair. Everything was above board. In fact IIT councils had decided to go international, to take the brand overseas and to attract foreign students," he said.

Kakodkar himself had resigned as IIT Bombay chairman in March over differences with the HRD ministry regarding selection of IIT directors. "My unease was to do with the fact that the earlier processes were set aside," he said. "But I cannot be party to a wrong doing. Contrary to what has been said, I never accepted this process. I stayed out."

"Dirt was thrown at him (Shevgaonkar) unfairly, as at me too-...when it was suggested that I had accepted the new selection process for IIT directors," he said.