India, Sept. 22 -- The death by suicide of an IIT Bombay student has once again brought to the fore a crisis which is getting worse in India. Extremely tragic as the incident is, IIT Bombay administration has made matters worse for itself by admitting that it erred by issuing a release with "details relating to the events preceding his demise before they had been duly established through the appropriate investigative process". And a predictable debate over reservation has ensued on social media. What this crisis needs is not institutional faux-pas and shrill debates but a serious acknowledgement and sincere course-correction.

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Hindustan Times....