What made this ex-IITian leave India? The Indian-origin woman has ‘reality’ check

Dr Rajeshwari Iyer, an alumna of NIT Puducherry and IIT Bombay, took to X to share her reasons to return to  India and then leave the country in a viral post.

“I used to find it funny when people said that the end goal of every Indian is to leave India,” she wrote.

“A few years ago, I left the US and came back driven by hope and a sense of duty. I genuinely wanted to build a life and contribute. But the ground reality was different,” she added.

She wrote that in India, people are blindly defending poor decisions, applauding high taxes, there is no merit, and unchecked corruption.

“It felt like a society rooting for its collapse,” she emphasised.

Seeing this situation in India, she again left the country with more ‘clarity’. She noted, “India will always be in my heart. But I refuse to raise my kids in an environment of hate, noise, and wilful ignorance.”

In an earlier post, she wrote:

Ask yourself why IITs aren’t building India:

- Merit is sidelined by reservation politics

- Mediocrity is rewarded over excellence

- Innovation is crushed under red tape

- Talent is forced to beg for opportunities, while quotas get promoted

Why would top minds stay in a system that punishes merit and glorifies freeloading?