The suicide of Sahil Wakode, a 20-year-old IIT Bombay student, has given the opportunity to self-styled ‘social justice activists’ to polish their caste politics and broader leftist ideological agenda. After an FIR was registered under the provisions of SC/ST Act against IIT Bombay Professor Suryanarayana Doolle, who caught Wakode cheating during exam on 18th September, the IIT Bombay Faculty Forum issued in statement in his support on 21st September. However, now a leftist Professor of Sociology at the same institute, Suryakant Waghmore, has opened a front against the Forum.
In an email addressed to IIT Bombay Faculty Forum President Rajkumar Pant, Suryakant Waghmore questioned the legal standing of the Forum itself and accused it of picking sides, in a total lack of sympathy for the deceased student. The screenshot of the said email was shared by Waghmore in an X post captioned, “Not me!!”
“Last I heard, faculty forum is not a legal body. Please stop sending mass emails before you clarify, your legal status. A faculty colleague can be suspended till the investigation committee submits its report. We have had such precedence and the faculty forum should not pick sides in a biased way. This shows total lack of sympathy towards the student who has lost his life and all those who are grieving,” the email reads.
“If I receive any more emails from FF, in this regard, I will have to pursue legal action against you,” it added.
Professor Suryakant Waghmore accused the IIT Bombay Faculty Forum of being biased against the Dalit student and shielding Professor Suryanarayana Doolla, who now faces ‘caste discrimination’ allegations. However, the Sociology professor’s email serves as a revelation of his own bias.
What the IIT Bombay Faculty Forum said
The IIT Bombay Faculty Forum issued a statement extending support to Professor Suryanarayana Doolla on 20th September.
“The Faculty Forum of IIT Bombay mourns the loss of life of a student of our institute, and offers deepest condolences to his family. We strongly express our solidarity with our colleague Prof. Suryanarayana Doolla, who was discharging his duties in line with the institute’s Senate approved academic policy currently in force,” the Forum’s statement signed by its President, Rajkumar S Pant reads.
“Prof. Doolla, the course instructor, was invigilating in the midsemester examination from 11-00 to 13-00 on Friday 18th September 2026, when he observed that a student was indulging in an academic malpractice, viz., unauthorized possession and use of a smartphone during the exam. As part of the institute approved procedure, he reported the incident to institute authorities for further action in the matter,” it adds.
In addition, the IIT Bombay Faculty Forum expressed distress over alleged attempts at tarnishing Professor Doolla’s reputation, and said, “The Faculty Forum of IIT Bombay is absolutely distressed with the tarnishing of the reputation of our colleague Prof. Suryanarayana Doolla, who was merely discharging his academic duties, and following the institute approved procedures.”
IIT Bombay administration suspended Professor Doolla’s deanship, Faculty Forum staged protest, but Suryakant Waghmore distanced himself
After initially backing Professor Suryanarayana Doolla over caste discrimination against a student who committed suicide on 18th September after being caught cheating in an exam, IIT Bombay suspended the deanship of Professor Suryanarayana Doolla with immediate effect on 21st September.
The IIT Bombay administration’s decision triggered a protest by the Faculty Forum. Giving an indirect verdict of his own, declaring Professor Doolla guilty, Professor Waghmore posted on X, “deanship is taken and they are protesting. Is deanship birth right? What kind of dean speaks to students with such insensitivity? All that the leadership advised us yesterday was the need for faculty to be sensitive to student needs & here we go they are united against what?”
Deanship is not a birthright; however, abrupt removal from this position over unproven allegations is nothing short of a punishment and damages his already under-attack reputation.
While Suryakant Waghmore has opened a front against Professor Suryanarayana Doolla, several IIT Bombay students and alumni have issued a statement backing Doolla. In a statement signed by 22 students and alumni and shared with OpIndia, they hailed Doolla’s integrity and said that the professor never demonstrated caste biases against any of his students.
From cheating to caste discrimination: Sahil Wakode suicide becomes an ideological windfall for Leftist caste activists
Sahil Wakode, a 2nd-year BTech student at IIT Bombay, took his own life on Friday (18th September) after being caught red-handed by Professor Suryanarayana Doolla. He later committed suicide in his hostel room.
Thereafter, protests emerged on the campus of the institute, demanding action against the esteemed faculty member. A day later, on Saturday (19th September), Sahil’s parents alleged that Professor Doolla had been mentally harassing and using casteist slurs against their son for 3 months at the behest of IIT Bombay’s Director Shireesh Kedare.
Meanwhile, Professor Doolla has received broader support, with many describing the SC/ST Act charges against him as vengeance for his decision to call out Wakode for using a mobile phone for cheating.
One of the key demands of Wakode’s father, Ravindra, is the immediate release of financial compensation under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Rules, 1995.
Notably, under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Rules, 1995, as amended in 2016 by the Modi government, 25% to 50% of the amount is released by the District Collector within seven days of the FIR’s filing, another 25% after the chargesheet is filed, and the balance on conviction, drawn from a schedule that ranges between ₹1 lakh for offences like caste slurs up to ₹8.25 lakh for murder or gang rape. OpIndia reported extensively earlier how this compensation provision is reinforcing rampant misuse of the SC/ST Act.
While a caste discrimination spin has been given to the tragedy now, not a single complaint was ever filed against Professor Doolla or Shireesh Kedare either with the administration or the SC/ST cell of IIT Bombay during Sahil’s tenure at the institute.
In fact, Sahil Wakode’s close friend Yatish Kumar said he had never observed anything that suggested his friend was facing caste-based discrimination. He recalled meeting Wakode just four or five days before the examination and said he appeared to be his usual self, “fun”, “cool” and happy.
“I don’t think casteism was an issue. I mean I have never experienced it,” Kumar told NDTV. He also stressed that he did not have complete information about everything that happened to Wakode because they were from different departments.
Even as the police are probing the caste discrimination allegations and so far, no clear evidence has surfaced indicating that Professor Suryanarayana Doolla subjected Sahil Wakode to caste discrimination or harassment, the leftist coterie is already making a Rohith Vemula out of Wakode.
OpIndia reported earlier about IIT Bombay turning into a playground of Leftist-Marxist ideologues masquerading as intellectual academics
While IITs are seen as temples of technical excellence—producing engineers, scientists, and innovators who have powered India’s progress, Leftist-Marxist ideology is metastasising across the premier institutions through Humanities departments.
Professor Suryakant Waghmore is one of the many IIT professors who subscribe overtly or covertly to the Leftist-Marxist ideology.
Waghmore is a professor of Sociology in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at IIT Bombay. BA from Karnataka University, MA in Community Development from TISS, PhD from Edinburgh as a Commonwealth Scholar, Suryakant Waghmore’s research work focuses mainly on Dalit politics, caste and violence, ‘Hinduism’ civility and exclusion.
Professor Waghmore earlier wrote that Indian vegetarianism is more about caste hierarchy than animal ethics. During the 2023 IITB mess-table dispute, he called “Bhartiya vegetarianism of purity and segregation” a “social illness”. Waghmore equated assertive vegetarian students to militants.
Professor Waghmore’s social justice activism, as is the case with most self-declared Ambedkarites, is all about Brahmin bashing and vilification. As reflected in one of his X posts, wherein he wrote that Hindus, particularly Brahmins, facing racism in the US are not facing Hinduphobia but their ‘Karma’.
“A true Brahmin should not cross the seas as per Manu and Dharmasutras. Brahmins experiencing racism in the US is not Hinduphobia… it’s karma?” he wrote.
He also opines that Hinduism lacks ‘civility’.
This taxpayer-funded academic has consistently been peddling anti-Hindu propaganda, though with an intellectual outlook.
In June 2025, a show-cause notice was issued to Suryakant Waghmore after a Times of India op-ed he authored triggered backlash. The article, headlined “Mumbai’s Big Cash Polls”, was a politically charged one, published without the prior institutional clearance, in violation of Schedule B, Paragraph 5(ii) of the institute’s code of conduct.
Waghmore has also taken delight in ‘gaumutra’ jibes at his critics previously.
Waghmore has also previously contributed articles to Islamo-leftist propaganda rags like Scoll and The Wire.
His articles are in line with his anti-BJP and anti-Hindu activism, though they carry scholarly nuance.
With such ideological biases, it is unsurprising that Professor Waghmore is attacking colleagues for standing by Professor Doolla, whose only reported fault is admonishing a student for cheating during an exam.
Leftists like Waghmore, who delightfully sermonise others about dissent, freedom of expression and tolerance, cannot stand the fact that an ideologically aligned person can have a differing viewpoint on an issue.
As Congress leader Shama Mohamed publicly extended support to Professor Suryanarayana Doolla, Suryakant Waghmore urged Congress President Malliarjun Kharge to either leave Congress or get Shama Mohamed to delete her post in solidarity with Doolla.
“In this suicide, I stand with Professor Doolla. If a student is caught cheating, it is normal to admonish him & ask him to leave the room. If the student was harassed due to his caste, he should have complained to the SC/ST department. When we were kids – we were admonished by teachers, parents for our wrongdoings but our generation was mentally strong. I would request colleges to have mental health therapists for the wellbeing of the students,” Mohamed wrote.
Disgruntled over Mohamed’s principled stance, Waghmore wrote, “Hello Mr. @kharge Please leave congress and find a better party.. if not get this post deleted.”
