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SCMP Reporter

Indian Institute of Technology alumni are outraged at plans by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's  government to rename IIT Bombay and IIT Madras,  which belong to a chain of the most prestigious engineering schools in the country.
The two IITs - along with others in  Kanpur, Kharagpur, Guwahati, Roorkee and New Delhi - were established  more than 50 years ago. Since the mid-1990s, political parties have renamed Bombay, Madras and Calcutta to Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata, respectively, apparently to appease nationalist voters by removing the last vestiges of British colonial rule in South Asia.
Amendments to the Indian Institute of Technology Act, awaiting Parliament's nod, will rechristen IIT Bombay  as ITT Mumbai. Similarly, IIT Madras will become  IIT Chennai.
But former students are appalled.
'This is ridiculous. Changing the names of IIT Madras and IIT Bombay is a grave injustice and will prove detrimental to their image', said Peter Chen, joint secretary of the London IIT chapter, a 400-strong body of IIT alumni in Britain.
Calcutta-born Mr Chen studied at IIT Kharagpur from 1958 to 1962 and now runs Herons,  Britain's largest bonsai tree nursery.
'The senseless renaming would hurt the brand value of the IITs and distract multinational companies doing business with IIT Bombay and IIT Madras for decades. The world still thinks of Bombay as Bombay - there are countless businesses outside India named after the city. They would never dream of replacing Bombay with Mumbai.'
Atul Prakash, who studied at IIT Madras, said: 'Renaming amounts to political interference in education institutions. Unfortunately, when politicians make up their minds there is no going back.'
The main objective of amending the IIT Act is to recognise the degrees of eight new IITs announced by Dr Singh's government. 'But we decided to also change the names of two existing IITs, reflecting the new names of the cities where they are located', a senior government official said, adding that it was a political decision ahead of mid-year general elections.
Regional parties from Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu -  key constituents of Dr Singh's Congress  party-led  United Progressive Alliance government - reportedly applied pressure for the renaming of  the two IITs.



Alumni outraged over 'political' renaming of Indian institutes