Nirmala Sitharaman asks Indian Institute of Foreign Trade to choose a dress code that is not an import

Consider junking “foreign-influenced” convocation attire of gown and cap, and opt for a dress that reflects Indian culture.

That was Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s advice on Friday to the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), at its convocation. The premier institute on foreign trade management should do internal brainstorming, she added, and even take help from the National Institute of Fashion Technology.

Ms. Sitharaman’s pitch echoes similar demands made in BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Dressed in a blue sari and blouse, she said she “somehow never felt comfortable in a gown and cap [the square academic cap], though this is not because I disrespect it.” “I think we need to review this, like we review the Foreign Trade Policy and other policies,” she said. Ms. Sitharaman wore the gown and cap at the IIFT convocation last year.

In Uttar Pradesh, IIT-Kanpur has adopted salwar suits with churidars for women, and cream kurtas and Aligarhi white pajamas for men. Even the business-focussed Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) has dwelt on ‘Indian attire’. On July 24, the ICSI quoted its president, Shyam Agrawal, as saying that “the ICSI has adopted traditional attire as its Convocation Dress Code and has decided to do away with the Western attire of gowns and caps...”

The dress code for the ICSI event is now kurta pajama for boys and sari/suit for girls, it said. The Institute also introduced an angavastra or stole/uttariya made of khadi for students.

‘Colonial relics’

The question of shedding colonial tradition has engaged Congress leader Jairam Ramesh too. At the Indian Institute of Forest Management convocation in 2010, he reportedly said he was unable to understand why even 60 years after Independence “we stick to these barbaric colonial relics... why can’t we have the convocation in a simple dress instead being dressed up as medieval vicars and popes?”