The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay management on Monday ordered the deactivation of the Twitter account of one of its management schools after a tweet from the account elicited significant backlash.
While the institute has washed its hands off the incident, the management school claimed that their handle had been compromised.
Around 3.11 p.m. on Monday, a writer, Shefali Vaidya, shared a screenshot of a tweet by the Shailesh J Mehta School of Management (SJMSoM), IIT-B, supposedly in response to one of her tweets.
The Tweet by SJMSoM read, “Because Hinduism and Hindutva are not the same. Being religious and stupid are two different things. People here may be religious but not stupid enough to vote for #BJP.”
Soon afterwards, Ms. Vaidya put out the screenshots of the tweet and the Twitter handle, saying, “So, an official blue-ticked handle of @SJMSoM – The Shailesh Mehta School of Management makes a political tweet about ‘people here’, meaning ‘people in WB’ ‘being ‘religious but not stupid enough to vote for @BJP4India’. Is this the official stand of @SJMSoM? Please clarify (sic).”
Following backlash on Twitter, the management school’s twitter handle deleted the tweet and claimed that their account had been compromised.
“With regards to the recent post, our account was compromised. We apologise for the same. We would like to re-iterate that the School neither endorses not take a political stand or viewpoint,” their tweet read.
IIT-Bombay, meanwhile, distanced itself from the tweet.
Ms. Shefali Vaidya told The Hindu, “I had retweeted Amit Shah’s tweet about West Bengal, to which there was that response from SJMSoM. I feel the person handling it simply failed to switch accounts before tweeting what was tweeted. My question is that the IIT Bombay is saying that we did not know the account existed, then how did the account get verified? To get verified, you need to give papers, letter from the institute, and some kind of bonafide document. That is for IIT Bombay to investigate and I am sure they will do it. For the time being, I am happy that the account has been suspended, pending enquiry. At least they are taking action.”