Am I a Naxal? IIT-B sociology professor, who took on Doolla-backers, asks Grok

IIT Bombay's sociology professor Suryakant Waghmore, who emerged as one of the most vocal faculty voices following the death of Sahil Wakode, challenging colleagues who rallied behind fellow IIT-B professor Suryanarayana Doolla, has asked AI bot of SpaceXAI Grok X if he was a "Naxal". Grok being Grok, has also answered him.

We know the question was rhetorical, but what made the IIT-B professor resort to Grok?

Days after questioning the IIT Bombay's Faculty Forum's backing for Doolla, Waghmore took his arguments to X. Over his stance, Waghmore was being called a "Naxal" and was questioned over his place in a technology institute. That's when he turned to Grok for an answer.

Although Suryakant Waghmore's X handle is not verified, it has more than 20,800 followers and is followed by several prominent personalities, including historian Ramachandra Guha, RJD MP Manoj Jha, public intellectual and columnist Pratap Bhanu Mehta, journalist Ravish Kumar, and lyricist-writer Varun Grover. The X handle has more than 2,400 posts and has been active since August 2020.

Waghmore has been taking on critics, journalists, political leaders, students and colleagues on X since the controversy erupted after Wakode's death. When IIT Bombay faculty members protested in support of Doolla, Waghmore said, "Wait for our protest !" He also questioned the Faculty Forum's intervention, saying, "Faculty forum is not a legal body. They are building pressure on the investigation committee. Not all faculty identify with this group.

Waghmore's posts on X have since ranged from comments on the SC/ST Act to questions about what happened inside the examination hall, where Sahil Wakode was allegedly caught cheating using ChatGPT. After reports on the CCTV footage emerged, Waghmore said, "Heated exchange who was shouting at whom?"

Wakode, a second-year BTech student, died by suicide on September 18, hours after Professor Doolla found him using ChatGPT on his smartphone, according to an IIT Bombay statement. After Wakode was found dead, his family alleged that he had faced caste-based harassment, abuse and threats for months, allegations which are under investigation.

Then, Doolla was booked under the stringent SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and Section 108 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, while IIT Bombay asked him to proceed on leave and constituted a high-level committee to examine the circumstances surrounding the death.WHY DID SURYAKANT WAGHMORE ASK GROK IF HE WAS A 'NAXAL'?

The bitter online debate took another turn on Wednesday when Waghmore posted that a "mob was calling [him] a Naxal" and questioning why a sociology professor belonged at an engineering institution.

Tagging Grok, he wrote, "Hello Grok, I am sociologist Suryakant Waghmore. This mob is calling me Naxal and says I have no place in a tech[nical] institute. Can you please answer them? Once and for all?"

Grok responded that there was "no evidence" linking Waghmore to Naxalites and described the label as "rhetorical for left-leaning academics." Grok pointed to Waghmore's academic background, research on caste and exclusion, and the presence of humanities departments at IITs.

Another person on X then asked Grok how many papers Waghmore had published in "top world journals". Grok replied that Waghmore had "a few papers in peer-reviewed international journals", while noting that his academic work also included books, chapters and articles.

Naxalism, the armed Maoist insurgency, the government said effectively ended in March 2026, saying India had become "Naxal-free". Over the years, however, the term has morphed into expressions such as "Urban Naxal", entering political rhetoric, particularly in statements by BJP leaders against people they accuse of providing ideological support to Maoism. The rhetoric expanded further this Independence Day when PM Narendra Modi, speaking from the Red Fort, said armed Naxalism was fading but warned of "dimagi Naxals", whom he accused of seeking opportunities to foment violence and unrest. advertisementWHY DID WAGHMORE OPPOSE THE FACULTY FORUM?At the centre of Waghmore's intervention and the subsequent debates, has been his disagreement with the IIT Bombay Faculty Forum's decision to publicly back Doolla.

The Forum said it "stands strongly with our colleague Prof Suryanarayana Doolla" and maintained that he had been "discharging his duties in line with the institute's Senate-approved academic policies currently in force." It also said it was distressed by what it called the "vilification" of Doolla through "false and misleading reports".

Challenging it, Waghmore said, "Deanship is taken and they are protesting. Is deanship birth right? What kind of dean speaks to students with such insensitivity?"

"Faculty forum is not a legal body... they are building pressure on the investigation committee. Not all faculty identify with this group...," he said in a separate post.

Waghmore's opposition is important to note because support for Doolla came from several faculties from IITs, including the one in Bombay. Faculty members from IIT Delhi and IIT Madras also expressed solidarity with Doolla and called for a fair investigation.WHO IS SURYAKANT WAGHMORE?

Waghmore is a professor of sociology in IIT Bombay's Department of Humanities and Social Sciences.

According to his official IIT Bombay profile, he studied political science, history and economics at Karnataka University, completed an MA in community development from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) and obtained his PhD in Sociology from the University of Edinburgh in 2010 as a Commonwealth Scholar.

Before joining IIT Bombay, he was professor and chairperson at TISS's Centre for Social Justice and Governance.Waghmore's work has examined caste, Dalit politics and exclusion, and he has also been critical of practices he sees as reinforcing caste hierarchy.

His research focusses on social exclusion, caste, marginalised communities, social movements and state-civil society relations. His books include 'Civility against Caste: Dalit Politics and Citizenship in Western India' and the co-edited 'Crisis in Civility: Democracy, Equality and Majoritarian Challenge in India'.

In a 2023 column in The Indian Express, amid IIT Bombay's mess-table controversy, he argued that "vegetarianism of purity" could promote segregation and hierarchy.

Waghmore's academic background is now also at the centre of an altogether different debate. Even as IIT Bombay is grappling with a student's death, a criminal investigation, competing allegations and divided voices on campus, Waghmore has chosen not to stay away from the fight. He is arguing it out, post by post, on X.- EndsPublished By: Sushim MukulPublished On: Sep 23, 2026 18:52 IST