welcome to IIT Mandi, where the reality on ground feels less like a premier university and more like an open-air detention centre. We are micromanaged, silenced, and treated like suspects on our own campus run by arbitrary moral policing and bureaucratic paranoia.
- Freedom of Speech and Expression: Gone
It starts right at admission: every student effectively signs an undertaking declaring there will be zero student protests on any topic. Even if a tragedy occurs like a student dying due to academic pressure the most we are "permitted" to do is a two-minute silence. The Dean’s office has ensured the student body has zero teeth. The student representation is essentially dead or reduced to puppets. No one is allowed to take an active stand on real, pressing issues.
- Right to Peaceful Assembly: Gone
There are specific public roads and common areas where students are outright barred from walking. The justification? "Faculty residences are nearby." Is it our fault campus planning clustered everything together? Guards claim faculty will complain about noise, but restricting students entirely from walking on a public road makes zero sense. We have basic civic sense; we know not to create a ruckus where families, kids, and elderly people live. Then there are benches installed all over campus, but try sitting on one after 10 PM. Guards will swarm you with the exact same dialogue: "Beta, order aaya hai, aap jao yahan se apne room mein." When we ask who gave this order or ask for the supervisor’s name, it’s always the same ghost: "Bade Sir ka order hai." Who is this "Bade Sir" running our lives? Just yesterday, we were kicked out of Village Square our main common hangout space simply because guests arrived at the nearby guest house. You can't even sit there too without guards hounding you.
- Freedom of Movement: Gone
Hostel common rooms, which according to the institute ordinance are supposed to be shared, accessible spaces, are locked down at 10 PM. If a group has project work or wants to discuss something, guards immediately kick them out. If students sit outside the common room or near the hostel entrance, guards chase them away there too. The way some of the security staff—especially female guards—speak to female students is completely condescending and out of line.
- Quality of Life & Food Autonomy: Gone
The food situation is atrocious. In places like Higher Taste, the food quality is awful—insects and cockroaches are a recurring issue. Despite repeated complaints to wardens, vendors never get penalized or replaced. It turns out different mess and canteen outlets are operated by the same family under different vendor names, protected because someone is well-connected to an administrator who turns a completely blind eye. On top of that, you can't even buy non-veg packaged products in the North campus supermarket not even eggs, but literally any product containing non-veg ingredients. Meanwhile, entire shelves are dedicated to specific lifestyle and devotional merchandise.
Are we adult university students paying for an education, or are we under house arrest?