Some things cannot be ignored

The little boy ran through the playground roaring “I am superman!!” With his mother’s red tablecloth flapping behind him, he aroused awe among the other toddlers while the adults looked on indulgently.

The first time I came across this I found it all rather funny.

Academically far superior

Globally best networked
Leaders in Indstry Consulting and Economic Research
IIPM.
World-Class.”
Arindam Chaudhuri
Noted Economist, Management Guru & Author of all time best sellers
“Count Your Chickens Before They Hatch” and “The Great Indian Dream”

For one thing Mr. Chaudhuri claims the Indian Institute of Planning and Management to be academically superior without mentioning who/what it happens to be superior to. He might have meant us to automatically assume a comparison with the Indian Institutes of Management or with Harvard, but my mind ran along the lines of "hmmm, so this would be a better option than studying in, say, Patna University" (which is an an academic institute of repute but doesn’t claim to be greater than IIM).

Then of course my jaw hit the table on reading that “Count your Chickens Before They Hatch” and what was the other book again, the one I hadn’t heard of before, oh yes, “The Great Indian Dream” were all time best sellers!!! Now that is one tall claim. I couldn’t ask the man or his publisher for an account of sales but this I can state, even assuming the books outsold Harry Potter or Dale Carnegie (which I find a leetle hard to believe) the reason they can never qualify as the all time best seller is because that post goes to the one and the only Holy Bible. I find it somewhat ludicrous that Mr. Chaudhuri should assume his books on management published within the last five years or so should outsell the Book which has been selling since 1456. Sheesh!! Sue me, mister, but this is too funny.

At least it used to be funny.

It stops being funny when investigative journalism is sought to be arm-twisted into silence.

It stops being funny when the outcome of innocently publicizing an article is strong arm tactics and finally it is not funny when one is faced with the immense dignity of a man who remained true to his integrity

But then neither are the responses to this seemingly innocuous blog post remotely humorous.

This controversy is no doubt immensely serious. It could affect the lives and careers of past and present students of IIPM. But nothing and I repeat nothing can possibly justify the sort of malicious slandering that has been displayed by anonymous bloggers purpoting to be IIPM-ites. It is one thing to factually refute any points in a report or a blog post. But nothing prepared me for comments irrelevant to the post, exclusively centred on the reporter’s life. It was a greater shock when I realized that these comments (frequently mispelled and as grammatically incoherent as they were irrelevant to the debate over IIPM’s over-reaching claims) were supposedly by adults who had received the benefits of higher education. I might have expected and accepted such filthy language from an illiterate bum on the roads but something tells me that the average homeless, jobless, poverty stricken individual would be far more worthy of respect than these fradulent claimants of literacy and respect and superiority.

The internet is both a place where it is very easy to make claims and equally easy to check up on them. I am providing the link to those who believe that screaming your head off loudest makes you the best. The number of people covering this issue has been truly stupendous, I would like to mention a reliable source for more links to this issue. I think that gives any reader unaware of issues at stake a chance to find out more for themselves without being unduly influenced by my personal bias.

I am not a student of IIPM, or any other management institute; perhaps this controversy should have nothing to do with me. I am however a member of the global student community; I do believe in freedom of expression. And I do not believe in either subverting the facts to your own ends or malicious mean-minded slander. Another drop of water falling in the ocean may not seem too much but for what it’s worth this post is dedicated to all those who are fighting for their integrity and for their beliefs.