Propaganda on Ram Mandir, support for Umar Khalid, trolling for PM Modi: Social Media posts of another professor of IIT Gandhinagar go viral
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Gandhinagar, has stirred a controversy yet again as the social media posts of its member, Professor Amit Arora, Department of Material Science went viral. In some of his posts, Professor expressed support for terrorist organisation Hamas and Umar Khalid, an accused under the UAPA in connection with anti-Hindu Delhi riots. Arora also made some political posts mocking the policies of the Modi government. Following backlash over his social media posts, Arora deleted his account.
On May 27, 2020, Arora posted some comments on the Ram Temple on X. A few months before that, the Supreme Court had passed the verdict in the Ayodhya Ram Mandir dispute and the formation of the Ram Mandir trust was underway.
Amit Arora wrote in his post, “Ram Lalla is in the child who is trying to wake up his mother’s corpse lying on the platform. As long as there is even one such child, Ram Lalla will never come to your temple. Go and build a temple.” This is an example of a typical leftist mindset which always portrays Hindus as inferior by linking any social or economic problem to their temples or Gods. Such things can be in the context of religion or sect, but the leftist minds always target Hindus.
On April 2, 2025, Professor Arora commented on a post made by a leftist account on X questioning why “Sanghis” have started using the name “Bharat” in their conversations instead of “India”. “What is the sudden onset of Sanghis using the name Bharat while conversing about in English about India? What are they trying to do? Trying to fool everyone to make them believe that Bharat is a different developed version of India?” the post read.
Responding to this, Professor Arora wrote, “Nope. Bharat is their Brahmanical, oppressive, and bigoted version of the actual united secular India”.
Professor Arora has also made many comments on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which clearly reflect his bias against the Prime Minister. In June 2024, he posted a photo on X taking a dig at PM Modi.
In 2020, he posted a photo of 2014 BJP poster with a caption that read, “Nothing left to write here”. The poster said that petrol and diesel prices will be decreased after the Modi government comes to power.
In a recent post from April 25, 2025, Amit Arora wrote, quoting a post by Modi-hating Gujarati journalist Urvish Kothari, “He speaks Hindi when he goes to America and English when he goes to Bihar. His (Modi’s) style of playing is different, the drama never ends.”
Professor Arora has also reposted Ravish Kumar’s posts. He reposted a post of Twitter troll Arpit Sharma, who wrote in support of Umar Khalid that if his name was Umesh or Umang, he would have been out of jail by now. But both Arpit who posted this and the IIT Gandhinagar professor who reposted it forgot that Umar Khalid is accused of plotting anti-Hindu riots. Yet here a deliberate propaganda was spread that he is being persecuted because he is a Muslim.
After all these posts of the professor came to light, many questions have arisen. There is a debate going on whether teachers working in educational institutions run by the central government and teaching students can make such comments on social media or can they join the gang of those who spread propaganda by promoting their ideology?
These educational institutions run on taxpayers’ money and if professors with such clearly ideological inclinations are working here, spreading their ideology in this way, then what kind of ideological environment will be created for the students studying there, is also a question. Especially for an educational institution like IIT Gandhinagar, which is already surrounded by controversies regarding these subjects.
IIT Gandhinagar is already mired in controversies
IIT Gandhinagar has recently been in the news for the wrong reasons. Few days ago, the prestigious institute stirred controversy after a social media user revealed PhD thesis topics centred on Islamic studies are being undertaken at the Humanities and Social Sciences Department (HSS).
OpIndia reported how students studying in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences of IIT Gandhinagar had started researching Islamic topics in the name of their annual thesis project. It was difficult to tell from the thesis topics whether it was an educational institution or an Islamic research centre.
When the issue came out in public, an email sent by Professor Nishant Choksi going viral in which he threatened students with disciplinary action, penalties for revealing thesis projects and student information. Professor Choksi was also in news for his association with Adilok NGO, which is said to have a religious agenda.
Later, OpIndia reported in another report how some teachers are associated with controversial NGOs working in tribal areas, while others are active on social media and are propagating leftist ideology. No action was taken in this matter, but now more controversies related to teachers are surfacing one after the other.
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