IIPM
The facts, for the three readers of this blog who have not already heard them:
JAM Magazine wrote a story about the Indian Institute for Planning and Management (IIPM) which questioned the claims made by the said institute in its ads. The story, as Amit Varma says, is "a terrific piece of journalism: professional, thorough, and relying entirely on facts that are verifiable by anyone." Gaurav Sabnis wrote about this and linked to the article. Although he was not the only blogger to do so, IIPM singled him out for special attention, and sent him a legal notice. Thus far, IIPM stayed within their rights, for is it not the God-given right of every Indian to threaten all and sundry with legal action?
Then, perhaps seeing that their grandiloquent threat did not have the effect they desired, the IIPM junta decided to up the ante. They complained to Gaurav's employer, IBM. However, as the post is on Gaurav's personal blog, IBM is not really responsible for what he said. So (and this is the point where they went really low) they told IBM that the IIPM Students Union had decided to burn IBM laptops in front of their office if Gaurav did not retract his posts. Perhaps they thought that such threats would make IBM pressure Gaurav to remove his posts. Rather than allow such harm to come to his employer, Gaurav Sabnis resigned from IBM (which I totally respect him for).
Parellely, IIPM and their supporters ran a campaign against JAM magazine and its editor, Rashmi Bansal. They served a legal notice on JAM, and posted (under several aliases) vile and filthy comments on her blog (which I have decided not to link to, for their vileness and filthyness).
So there it is. IIPM, earlier known only as a crap MBA Institute, has now been exposed as a bunch of craven bullies. The blogosphere, of course is not taking this lying down. Amit and DesiPundit have good roundups of people who have blogged about this. The affair has caught the attention of our American cousins as well, with Glenn Reynolds Himself linking to Amit's post. IIPM is now Technorati's #2 tag.
IIPM, in choosing to personally pick on Gaurav Sabnis and Rashmi Bansal, have made a big mistake. They have caused Gaurav and Rashmi (at the very, very least) severe inconvenience just to cover up their own malpractices.What they perhaps did not count on is that this has pissed off the entire Indian Blogosphere and many International Bloggers as well. Or perhaps they did realise this, but went ahead with their campaign uder the assumption that there is no such thing as bad publicity. Well, I think they are about to find out. I, for one, will enjoy being part of the campaign that destroys what little reputation IIPM has left.
Support Gaurav Sabnis! Death to IIPM('s reputation)!
Update: Have the mysterious IIPM supporters started deleting their blogs? Check out IIPMAndy, Not a Nice Man to Know and Desi Howard Roark, all of whom commented on Youth Curry, and all of whose blogs are since defunct.
Update 2: There is now a Wikipedia Article on IIPM (h/t DesiPundit) with a section on the controversy. As Ravikiran says, it is up to concerned bloggers to prevent miscreants from deleting details about the controversy. But it is also up to bloggers to edit responsibly, because Wikipedia depends on us to keep the whole thing unbiased and objective.
Update 3: The MSM picks up the story.
(Technorati Tag: IIPM.)
JAM Magazine wrote a story about the Indian Institute for Planning and Management (IIPM) which questioned the claims made by the said institute in its ads. The story, as Amit Varma says, is "a terrific piece of journalism: professional, thorough, and relying entirely on facts that are verifiable by anyone." Gaurav Sabnis wrote about this and linked to the article. Although he was not the only blogger to do so, IIPM singled him out for special attention, and sent him a legal notice. Thus far, IIPM stayed within their rights, for is it not the God-given right of every Indian to threaten all and sundry with legal action?
Then, perhaps seeing that their grandiloquent threat did not have the effect they desired, the IIPM junta decided to up the ante. They complained to Gaurav's employer, IBM. However, as the post is on Gaurav's personal blog, IBM is not really responsible for what he said. So (and this is the point where they went really low) they told IBM that the IIPM Students Union had decided to burn IBM laptops in front of their office if Gaurav did not retract his posts. Perhaps they thought that such threats would make IBM pressure Gaurav to remove his posts. Rather than allow such harm to come to his employer, Gaurav Sabnis resigned from IBM (which I totally respect him for).
Parellely, IIPM and their supporters ran a campaign against JAM magazine and its editor, Rashmi Bansal. They served a legal notice on JAM, and posted (under several aliases) vile and filthy comments on her blog (which I have decided not to link to, for their vileness and filthyness).
So there it is. IIPM, earlier known only as a crap MBA Institute, has now been exposed as a bunch of craven bullies. The blogosphere, of course is not taking this lying down. Amit and DesiPundit have good roundups of people who have blogged about this. The affair has caught the attention of our American cousins as well, with Glenn Reynolds Himself linking to Amit's post. IIPM is now Technorati's #2 tag.
IIPM, in choosing to personally pick on Gaurav Sabnis and Rashmi Bansal, have made a big mistake. They have caused Gaurav and Rashmi (at the very, very least) severe inconvenience just to cover up their own malpractices.What they perhaps did not count on is that this has pissed off the entire Indian Blogosphere and many International Bloggers as well. Or perhaps they did realise this, but went ahead with their campaign uder the assumption that there is no such thing as bad publicity. Well, I think they are about to find out. I, for one, will enjoy being part of the campaign that destroys what little reputation IIPM has left.
Support Gaurav Sabnis! Death to IIPM('s reputation)!
Update: Have the mysterious IIPM supporters started deleting their blogs? Check out IIPMAndy, Not a Nice Man to Know and Desi Howard Roark, all of whom commented on Youth Curry, and all of whose blogs are since defunct.
Update 2: There is now a Wikipedia Article on IIPM (h/t DesiPundit) with a section on the controversy. As Ravikiran says, it is up to concerned bloggers to prevent miscreants from deleting details about the controversy. But it is also up to bloggers to edit responsibly, because Wikipedia depends on us to keep the whole thing unbiased and objective.
Update 3: The MSM picks up the story.
(Technorati Tag: IIPM.)
posted by Kunal at 3:22 AM
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1 Comments:
Interesting :)
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