During the convocation ceremony on Saturday, graduating students of Azim Premji University wore stickers calling for an “end to the ties between Wipro and Tel Aviv,” expressing solidarity with the Palestinian people and protesting Israel’s ongoing genocidal war in Gaza.
Azim Premji, the founder and chairman of Wipro, is also the founder of the university.
“Wipro, which is funding our university, is complicit in the genocide against Palestinians by partnering with Israel in many research projects, many of which are used to develop technologies currently being deployed to massacre Palestinians. Israel is an illegal state and occupation, and any tie with it should be resisted,” a student told Maktoob.
According to students, “the display of stickers was opposed by certain faculty members; however, the students remained firm in their expression of solidarity.”
“We, the graduating batch of 2025, of APU, condemn the Israel state and all the organisations that support this genocide,” students said in a statement.
It further read: “APU is funded by the Azim Premji Foundation, a philanthropic venture initiated by Azim Premji. The Foundation holds about 66% of the economic ownership of Wipro Ltd, a leading technology services and consulting company. Wipro has an ongoing joint research partnership with Ramot, Tel Aviv University (TAU) – the largest higher education institution in Israel. There have also been allegations of ties with the Israeli military.”
Students also gathered, raised slogans in solidarity with Gaza, and held placards that read “Stop funding genocide.”
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