IIT Profs stage protest against Modi

Chennai, July 28 (UNI) Two women professors of the IIT Madras today staged a protest against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi disapproving his government's policies.

Ms Enakshi Bhattacharya and Ms Nandita Das Gupta took the huge audience at an auditorium in theIIT complex here by surprise, when they trooped to the front of the dias and staged the protest.

Even as police personnel remained clueless, the duo rushed towards the dias and shouted ''Mr Modi!'' Ms Bhattacharya, after drawing Mr Modi's attention, held aloft a small banner, pinned on her bag, in which it was written ''Mr Modi, we disapprove.'' After displaying the one-line banner to the audience, the two professors left the auditorium even as security personnel ran after them.

When police detained and questioned them, the professors displayed their identity cards and told the police that they only came to express their protest against the Modi Government's policies and had no other intention.

''My objection is to his (Mr Modi's) policies. He (Mr Modi) could not stop the Gujarat riots,'' Ms Bhattacharya said adding the Modi Government had also failed to handle properly the Narmada Dam issue.

''We also wanted to express our protest for stopping the screening of film Fana,'' she said.

The police and security personnel, convinced that the duo had no other intention, allowed them to leave the complex. Security personnel were taken aback as Mr Modi was in the highest ''Z Plus'' security category.

Mr Modi was about to make a multi-media presentation about Gujarat when the two professors staged the protest.

He was here in connection with the ''National Alliance for Mission 2007-Evey Village a Knowledge Centre,'' jointly organised by the M S Swaminathan Research Centre and Microsoft.

After the function, eminent Agriculture Scientist M S Swaminathan, accompanied Mr Modi in his bullet proof car for a distance before returning to the auditorium.

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