KIIT suicide: Apologies for ousting Nepali students after PM Oli’s public outrage

The suicide of a Nepalese student has plunged Odisha’s first private deemed university — the Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT), Bhubaneswar — into a raging controversy that not only threatens to sully the reputation of the premier institution but could also have a bearing on Indo-Nepal relations.

Though a massive damage control exercise has been launched by KIIT, founded by philanthropist-turned-politician Dr Achyut Samanta, the damage has already been done.

For around 1,000 students from Nepal (numbers per an NDTV report) were reportedly asked to vacate their hostel rooms for protesting over the death of 20-year-old Prakriti Lamsal, a third-year BTech student who hanged herself from the ceiling fan in her room on Sunday, 16 February.

The fallout has been the involvement of not only a shamefaced Indian Embassy in Nepal but the prime minister of Nepal personally, leaving KIIT authorities with egg on not just their own faces but our whole nation's — which can now justifiably be charged with blatant racism

Lamsal’s suicide allegedly followed harassment by an ex-boyfriend, a fellow student from Lucknow.

Her compatriots and peers, meanwhile, allege that they were forced out of their hostels on Monday, 17 February, and dumped summarily at Cuttack railway station. Many of them did not even have money on them to buy tickets — to anywhere, never mind Nepal.

Their crime? They had blocked the road outside the university to protest against the university’s apathy over Lamsal’s suicide.

As videos of the students describing their ordeal went viral on social media, Nepal’s prime minister K.P. Sharma Oli hastened to intervene.

He assured the students that two officers from the Nepalese embassy in Delhi were being dispatched to take care of them.

‘Our Embassy in New Delhi has dispatched two officers to counsel Nepali students affected in Odisha. Additionally, arrangements have been made to ensure they have the option to either remain in their hostel or return home, based on their preference,’ Sharma wrote on his X handle.

With someone of Sharma’s stature stepping in — and with a public comment on social media — the authorities running the show at KIIT (which was granted deemed university status in 2004) were forced to reverse their earlier orders and make arrangements to take back the Nepalese students.

The KIIT registrar’s office, which had in the wake of protests over Lamsal’s death on Sunday issued a notice declaring the university closed sine die to the Nepalese students — and asking them to vacate the campus immediately — were singing a different tune by Monday evening, 17 February.

A fresh letter issued by registrar Prof. Jnyana Ranjan Mohanty described the incident as ‘unfortunate’ and appealed to all the students from Nepal to return to the campus to resume classes.

‘There was an unfortunate incident which took place late in the evening yesterday on the Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT) campus.

‘Immediately after the incident, police investigated the matter and apprehended the culprit.

“The KIIT administration has made all out efforts to restore normalcy on the campus and hostels to resume the academic activities. An appeal is made to all our Nepali students who have or plan to leave the campus to return and resume the classes,’ said the letter.

Bhubaneswar deputy commissioner of police Pinak Mishra said the accused — one Advik Srivastava of Lucknow — might have abetted Lamsal’s suicide and has been arrested.

The incident came to light when a relative of Lamsal, Siddhant Sigadel, informed the Infocity police. The police then recovered the body and sealed the room. It also seized the her laptop and mobile phone for further investigation. By now, a post mortem too has been completed, though the report is not yet public.

Several students, most refusing to be named, allege that the victim was being harassed by the accused for the past several months — but she did not receive any help from the university authorities despite having reported the matter to the international relations department.

However, by now, the arbitrary actions of the university authorities, dealing with the other Nepalese students in the most insensitive manner, has placed KIIT under greater scrutiny than Srivastava — and is looking to snowball into an international incident.

For now, the Indian Embassy in Nepal is also involved. In a statement, it said, ‘Nepali students studying in India form an important facet of the enduring people to people links between the two countries.

‘The Government of India will continue to take all necessary steps to ensure the well-being of the Nepali students in India.’

KIIT and the local authorities have responded by placing two platoons of police officers (30 personnel each) on campus as well as opening a ’dedicated control room‘ and 24x7 helpline for the students from Nepal who return.

It is now obvious that the sine die order was a horribly miscalculated knee-jerk reaction.

Rajan Gupta, one of the Nepalese students who found himself suddenly dumped at Cuttack railway station, told a private news channel, ”We had protested against the death of the girl and were asked to vacate the hostels. We don't know what their intentions are.

“I am neither sure of train timings nor do I have money to travel. We have not even had food. We are helpless.

“We were just asked to vacate the hostels. The staff members entered the hostel and forced us to move out. They even hit those who were slow in vacating the hostel.”

One of the video clips posted on social media captured heated exchanges between university officials and students, purportedly inside the hostel where the deceased resided.

The highlight of these exchanges were the xenophobic remarks made by one of the female officials that has gone viral.

At one point, the official is heard asking the students to go wherever they felt safe, while stating that the amount spent by the university on students' welfare was more than the national budget of Nepal. “Do not insult the founder of this university. The man is feeding 40,000 students for free. Such an amount would even be more than your country’s entire budget,” the woman can be heard saying in the clip.

The statement drew vociferous protests from the students — but the female official remained unfazed.

In Monday evening’s statement, the university said, ‘KIIT remains committed to [the Nepali students’] safety and well-being.’ — a move that can at best be characterised as a belated attempt to salve their own conscience and unlikely to heal the wounds of the harassed and humiliated students from Nepal.

Today, there has been a note of apology from the university on X — which ‘deeply regrets’ the incident and ‘reaffirms’ KIIT’s commitment to the safety, dignity and well-being of the ‘dear Nepali students’ — and a repost of apologies from the videographed female official.

We hardly dare hope this can suffice.