India's premier technical institute, IIT-Bombay's golden jubilee celebrations -- to be held in New York from July 18 to 20 this year -- have stirred a hornet's nest. The reason is that Dow Chemicals is one of the main sponsors.

Around 500 alumni and 43 IIT-Bombay faculty members are objecting to the fact that the company acquired Union Carbide -- which was held responsible for the 1984 Bhopal gas leak tragedy that killed around 3,000 people and left hundreds of others maimed for life -- but refused to take over the liabilities of the predecessor towards environmental and other damages.

In an appeal on their website called "i petitions", they note: "Dow Chemicals has been attempting to forge links with IITs by offering to fund fellowships and research projects. It has also explored the possibility of recruiting IIT graduates through IIT placement offices. We are writing to urge you to reject any offer of a relationship with Dow Chemicals or any of its subsidiaries for reasons mentioned below. In particular, we strongly urge you to refuse sponsorship from Dow Chemicals for the 2008 Golden Jubilee Conference, planned for 18-20 July, 2008. . . Dow Chemicals clearly aims to acquire legitimacy and credibility by forging relations with IITs. The reputation of IITs will certainly be tarnished by any association with Dow Chemical."

IIT-Bombay's own official celebrations are scheduled to take place in Bombay and the faculty members writing against the Dow sponsorship of the New York event have made it clear that their letter "is in our capacities as concerned citizens of India, and does not represent an official position of IIT-Bombay".

Director Ashok Misra was unavailable for comment till the time of going to press, but a senior IIT official on condition of anonymity said: "There are a lot of different groups that have IIT alumni who are associated with IIT Bombay at various levels. Their protests against a certain issue does not mean that the institute will favour their stand. We are a government institute and will always go by what the government directions are."

The organisers, on their part, have on their official website sought to distance themselves from the sponsors saying: "Sponsorship is a paid privilege and does not constitute or imply an endorsement of the sponsoring companies, organisations or individuals, their products, services or business practices."

A Dow India spokesperson said: "Dow India is a lead sponsor at the IIT-Bombay Alumni 2008 Golden Jubilee event in New York. As in any democracy, a number of different opinions exist and Dow's sponsorship of the event is being welcomed by several IITians.

"We have around 80 IITians working across the world and all have expressed their full support to the sponsorship. Apart from this, Dow has a number of key research projects across IITs in India and continues to receive several resumes from IIT alumni."

While Dow and De Shaw and Co are the gold sponsors, the platinum sponsor for the show is Technigraphics, and the silver sponsors include companies like Jet Airways, Google, Microsoft and Elegant Affairs.

There are many other sponsors beside these categories. The conference "Looking Ahead -- The Next 50 Years" is being organised by IIT-Bombay Heritage Fund and will be co-chaired by Citigroup retired Vice-Chairman Victor Menezes and Infosys Chairman Nandan Nilekani.

A statement of the organisers said more than 700 people from over 325 organisations have already registered for this event. Speakers at the golden jubilee celebrations will include Indian ambassador Ronen Sen, JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, AIG Vice-Chairman Frant Wisner.

More than 1,000 IITians signed a petition last year urging the IITs to bar Dow from on-campus recruitment or sponsoring programmes.

The company called off its recruitment plans in Mumbai, Chennai, Kharagpur and New Delhi. IIT-Kharagpur's chemical engineering department resolved not to approach Dow for sponsorship of their departmental festival.

Meanwhile, IIT-Kanpur and IIT-Delhi returned Dow's sponsorship money for high-profile conferences at the last minute succumbing to pressure from alumni, faculty and students.