Harvard Club of India disavows alumni letter on Delhi protest crackdown

The Harvard Club of India, the official alumni group for Harvard graduates in the country, issued a clarification that it neither authored nor supported a recently circulated letter signed by roughly 100 alumni denouncing police brutality and unlawful detentions during the October 10 demonstration in Delhi. The protest targeted chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over the Special Intensive Revision exercise and was met with a massive security deployment and thousands of arrests.

Rajat Sethi, a member of the club’s Executive Council, told ANI that the letter represents only the personal views of its signatories and not the club’s stance. He added that the club’s governing rules prohibit it from making political statements in its own name or on behalf of Harvard University. The clarification aims to prevent the public from assuming institutional endorsement of the criticism.