Viral poster labels PM Modi, Amit Shah, Yogi Adityanath as 'We fool you'; IIT Bombay 'totally unaware'

A viral poster of a UC Berkeley workshop on “South Asian Captialism(s)” has stirred outrage after portraying Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah, and Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath under the caption “We fool you”. IIT Bombay, named as the co-host, has issued a sharp denial, saying it has “nothing to do with the event”.

A two-day workshop scheduled at University of Berkeley in partnership with IIT Bombay and University of Massachusetts-Amherst on September 12 and 13 was advertised as exploring “how capitalist accumulation is socially structured across South Asia”.

The provocative poster for the UC Berkeley workshop titled “Pyramid of Capitalist India” showed different social groups stacked in a hierarchy with captions such as “We Rule you”, “We fool you”, “We Shoot at you”, and “We feed all”.

The top layer – We Rule You – represented business tycoons and wealthy elites as capital class controlling the economy. The second layer – We fool you – shows political leaders, including PM Narendra Modi, home minister Amit Shah, and UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath in saffron attire.

The armed forces and police were placed under “We Shoot At You”, while the bottom layer shows farmers, workers, peasants, and people under “We Work for All” and “We Feed All”. The direct depiction of the current Indian leaders and Hindu monk, has intensified the backlash.

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IIT Bombay denies involvement

IIT Bombay, which was listed as a partner of the UC Berkeley workshop, has reacted strongly to the viral poster, saying it was “deeply shocked and upset by its content”.

In an official statement, the institute said it was “totally unaware” of the flyer and issued instructions to the organisers to take it down from all social media platforms and remove IIT Bombay’s name from the list.

“IIT Bombay has a project related to New Political Economic Initiative. However, we were totally unaware about the published flyer…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. The Institute will cease to associate with these faculty members from UC Berkeley and University of Massachusetts-Amherst going forward,” it said, adding that further investigation into the matter will be conducted.

Reacting to the flyer, one of the user wrote on X: “IIT Bombay sponsors an event on South Asian Capitalism. Poster shows @AmitShah @narendramodi , and @myogiadityanath with a caption “WE FOOL YOU”. No Maulana or Father shown; only a Hindu Monk in saffron robes. Why @iitbombay? @dpradhanbjp”