I had been planning to restart this blog for quite some time. The only problem was that I’d naturally have to comment on the IIPM episode and every time I thought of their antics I doubled up with laughter. An institute that handles criticism so ineptly surely does not need to be taken seriously, I thought. I read those comments on Rashmi Bansal’s blog and I saw them with the morbid fascination of watching a trainwreck. What are these guys upto? I thought. If IIPM hadn’t dredged them up, Rashmi’s and Gaurav’s posts would have been lost in cyberspace. Hardly anyone would have found those posts. The gullible would have continued to join the institute and paid their exorbitant fees. By picking up a fight (and what kind of fight they fought!) they ensured that their reputation would spread far and wide. It was just another case of a megalomaniac leading an organization to a path of self-destruction, I thought. I met Gaurav over the weekend along with a few other bloggers and I saw no need to change my mind. These guys were a bunch of jokers, I thought. The only thing that needed to be done was to keep the information about the institute in view, so that anyone who joins it does not do so out of ignorance, only out of stupidity.

That was till two hours ago when I read this. I was stunned. It isn’t funny any more. Gaurav Sabnis has had to resign to protect his employer, IBM, from “bad publicity”. He had to choose between withdrawing his posts and resigning from his job. He did the right thing. He quit rather than take back his posts and apologise.

You know what they say, that it takes a minute to know a man’s character? This was that minute. I have met Gaurav many times before, but I know him only now. Yes, it is one thing to talk of principles, it is another to take a stand for them. It is not easy to do it these days when cynicism is the norm.

In doing so, he showed up how pathetic the opposition is. Do the IIPM guys know what a mess they’ve got themselves into? Who loses from this episode? Gaurav? Oh well, resigning a job is something of a setback for him, but figure this out – he is a PGDM from IIML. Do they think that such a guy will stay jobless for long? On the other hand, IIM guys are everywhere and they are likely to be the ones interviewing the foul-mouthed creeps who will graduate from that “institute”. Now everyone is talking about the episode. If there was even the slightest chance that a sane prospective student will miss out on the truth about that institute, it is gone now. Who’s going to lose out now?

So let’s keep up the fight. Let’s keep hammering the truth about IIPM. Ultimately it is not their reputation in the job market that they are bothered about. They don’t have a reputation. They don’t care much about whether their students get a job or not. They are only concerned about getting ignorant students who will pay their exorbitant fees. The more we keep up this pressure, the less chance that there remain people who are ignorant about the institute. Every post we make, every media mention we get will help.