IIPM v. Bloggers Part I

Before anything, please note that everything I write here is my own personal opinion. I write it in my capacity as a free individual to express my thoughts and feelings. Nobody is meant to read this and if you are doing so, you do so at your own risk. I write this because I must.

I had been watching this Gaurav Sabnis – IIPM imbroglio silently from the sidelines before I felt that things have taken a turn for the worse with allegations flying freely on what Gaurav Sabnis had to say about IIPM ( the fact that he had only linked to somebody else’s opinion is a different matter altogether ) or what IIPM is purported to have done against Gaurav Sabnis as retaliatory action for what they believe is a clear case of public defamation. It is not becoming of a burgeoning society such as ours to sweep this issue under the carpet and so stay it shall, up and in our faces till we give the devil its due and close this out once and for all.

Fundamentally, I think this issue begs answers to 2 burning questions: 1. What is the “limit” to a blogger’s expression of his thoughts and feelings about a public issue – for I believe limited freedom is no freedom at all. And 2. Who should it behoove to audit educational institutions making claims on their credentials before the same credentials are put forth in front of the common man – is it a question of moral responsibility or is it a question of government policing?

The first question which seems rather nebulous at first is straightforward once you cut through the riff raff and see the heart of the question for what it is. A blog is something like a personal diary – a not-so-secret sort of a window into your life, a window through which somewhere down the line you would often look through and turn the clock back, and experience the clichéd walk down memory lane just once more. Its also your own personal space in the web, a virtual abode if you may, where you can (atleast in spirit and I still believe this) be open in your thoughts and actions which you believe in. One man’s food is another man’s poison so be it, I don’t want to please anybody else but my self, in what I think, speak and do. My blog therefore is a reflection of my mind, as it sees itself in a world that it has created for itself. My mind and I are one…. You have a problem with what I write in my blog, live with it. I never asked you to come here.

The second question revolves around the controversy surrounding IIPM’s immaculate credentials. I have always wondered how an educational institute had the wherewithal to sustain such astronomical levels of advertising. And I rationalized it myself thinking that there were wealthy patrons of the institute and left it at that. Until Rashmi pulled the plug on IIPM’s claims. Until Gaurav unwittingly found himself in the eye of a storm, bemused by an apparently great institute’s perfectly idiotic reaction that defies any attempt at a sensible de-construction. In my opinion, whether IIPM has a case for themselves or not, they committed the biggest blunder of this century by launching a malicious attack on a blogger expressing his opinion. And so they blissfully opened Pandora’s box and the proverbial can of worms too, for I see no way in hell that IIPM is going to come out of this unscathed.

(Incidentally, just to cut away from the dreariness once in a while, read http://www.radiosargam.com/movies/moviereviews/r/rstrl.htm for a review of “Rok sako to rok lo”, touted as a brilliant hit-to-be because it drew on deep marketing knowledge of the Indian consumer. Incidentally, one person touted this … any guesses??)

While we keep this issue about IIPM’s claims alive, we should also understand that the IIPM students themselves have nothing to do with this. In their minds, they are protecting something that they strongly believe in and that I think is nothing wrong. As long as they don’t infringe on other’s space, they are welcome to do what they want. Should someone say something about my alma mater, I would be petulant too. And you dear reader, would be no different. So lets not lose focus on this issue by slinging mud at the products of IIPM and get embroiled in a needless scuffle but instead bring the spotlight on the institute itself and confirm for ourselves that what they say about themselves is the truth. For, if what IIPM says about itself in all its ads are true, I applaud them for it is definitely an achievement but if they are not, I will not stand somebody else making a mockery of my sensibilities.

I stand by Gaurav in what he did. I don’t need to offer him any support, for I am sure he has enough support to handle a million IIPM’s and their likes together. I stand by him for I believe he is right in spirit and action. It completely beats me why IIPM didn’t just smother this controversy by comprehensively proving that they are backed to the hilt on their claims instead of trying to use strong-arm tactics into pummeling someone into submission. All this only goes to deepen the suspicion that I have about IIPM trying to hide something from public scrutiny. IIPM, I ask you this, if your flag indeed flew high and proud and shimmered in the colour white and not low and dark, sulking in baleful black, why haven’t you made a single attempt in answering any of the questions that have been asked by Jammag (read Rashmi)? Why hasn’t there been a single attempt to assure the general public that Arindham Chaudhuri indeed is a great management guru, with sterling educational qualifications from pedigree institutions? And the institute that advocates to “dare think beyond the IIM’s” should have itself carefully studied the strategy in which they chose to handle this issue, by resorting to despicable and sub-standard methods of coercion.

Net Net, I write from my heart, straight as an arrow. And so did Gaurav. And so do millions of other bloggers. You mess with one, you mess with everyone. We, the bloggers are but atoms of a much larger-than-life supreme omniscient organism that breathes a life of its own. That is the true and only reality of the blogosphere.

And finally, if indeed IIPM did threaten to burn their laptops outside the IBM office and do so, they can rest assured that they would face a PIL (public interest litigation) from me and hundreds other for burning toxic plastic in public than disposing of them safely. IIPM, tell me slowly and clearly, for you are losing me here, on how burning laptops is going to prove that the claims made by you in your advertisements are true.

At the end of the day, no matter which b-school you are from, remember that a B-school is not a magical Xanadu, where one swish of the magic wand will turn you from a born loser to a valiant victor. It’s what you are made of, the strength of character that will differentiate you being a winner from you being a loser. Like Michelangelo remarked on his famous sculpture of an angel on how he was able to carve with such a surrealistic touch, he replied, “…in the stone, I could only see the angel struggling to set herself free and so I did”. That rings true of every one of us. Its what inside us, at the core of our existence that matters. Not passing out from an IIT or an IIM.

On a more personal note, Rashmi and Gaurav – I salute thee.