Congress accuses Centre of hiding IIT student suicide data

Congress general secretary K.C. Venugopal. File | Photo Credit: ANI The Congress on Tuesday (September 22, 2026) alleged that the government withheld data on suicides at the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and claimed that more than half of the students who died by suicide in the premier institutions over the past five years belonged to Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST) and Other Backward Classes (OBC) communities.Congress general secretary (organisation) K.C. Venugopal alleged that the Ministry of Education had deliberately excluded suicide-related data from its response to a parliamentary question he had raised in December 2025.“When I raised this question in Parliament in a question to be tabled on 8th December 2025, the Ministry gave a vague response and evades disclosing specific numbers,” Mr. Venugopal said in a post on X.He said an Under Secretary in the Ministry had written to the IITs on December 1, 2025, seeking the relevant information, but the data was not included in the Minister’s response.“This shows that their intentions were to lie to the people, to hide the extent of discrimination taking place at elite government institutions,” Mr. Venugopal alleged.He was reacting to a news report which claimed that 53 students had died by suicide at IITs over the past five years and that more than 50% of them belonged to SC, ST and OBC communities.Citing IIT-B student deathThe Congress leader linked the issue to the death of Sahil Wakode, who was from an SC community and a student of IIT-Bombay, and demanded an explanation from the government on why the data was not disclosed.“When Sahil Wakode’s death has shocked the entire nation, hiding such data makes the government complicit in creating the atmosphere that caused Sahil’s death,” he said.Kodikunnil Suresh, the party’s Chief Whip in the Lok Sabha and a Dalit leader himself, also expressed concern over the student’s death.“Sahil’s life mattered. His dignity mattered. His family deserves truth, justice and accountability,” Mr. Suresh said in a post on X.The Congress demanded that the government disclose the data and spell out measures to address concerns among students from marginalised communities at the IITs. Published - September 22, 2026 10:57 pm IST