‘Deeply shocked and upset’, IIT Bombay issues clarification on Poster controversy

The Indian Institute of Technology Bombay has issued a clarification regarding its name being associated with a workshop titled "South Asian Capitalism(s)," scheduled for September 12-13, 2025, at the University of California, Berkeley.

Issuing a statement, IIT Bombay stated: “We were totally unaware about the published flyer. Upon hearing about this post, we issued immediate instructions to the organisers to take down the flyer from all social media platforms and remove IIT Bombay's name from everything to do with this event.”

It further stated that the details of the programme have been removed from the website of New Political Economy Initiative with immediate effect. No one from IIT Bombay is attending the conference. The Institute was not at all consulted about the flyer.

“We are deeply shocked and upset by its content,” said IIT Bombay.

As per a flyer, New Political Economy Initiative, a research program at IIT Bombay was reportedly co-organizer of the event with UC Berkeley’s Institute for South Asia Studies, and the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.

The controversy erupted after a poster, which adapted a 1911 anti-capitalist cartoon, depicted a "Pyramid of Capitalist India" with slogans like "WE RULE YOU," "WE FOOL YOU," and "WE SHOOT AT YOU." Many are claiming that it was a deliberate attempt to included images of key Indian politicians with figures resembling with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath—under the "WE FOOL YOU" caption, with a Hindu monk in saffron robes also in the poster.

This poster created major uproar across social media platforms about why IIT Bombay would sponsor such an event allegedly mocking Indian leaders.