IIPM vs. desi bloggers

This seems to be a good coupla weeks old, but nevertheless I believe that these guys need to get all the exposure that they deserve.. better late than nevah I've been told.. :)

Now, even though I don't really think much of MBAs.. I have never heard of a top B-school named IIPM before today - seems I should get out more lol..

This whole imbroglio seems to have stemmed from this article on a college community site named JamMag [fubar site]. IIPM apparently have an intense marketing campaign to draw in students from all over India. The article basically questions the veracity of pretty much everything that IIPM advertises and also draws attention to the very authenticity of degrees from IIPM.

Now, it is understandable if IIPM went after Jammag claiming slander yada yada yada (which they've done by going after its editor, Rashmi Bansal).. But what actually caused widespread consternation was that IIPM started serving notices to bloggers who had linked to the story and offered their own views on it - most notably Gaurav Sabnis and Varna Sriraman.. Both of them have received emails from IIPM's legal beagles (sic) threatening them with 100+ crore lawsuits for commenting on the article in question - Gaurav's post and Varna's post.

And if that wasn't sufficient, IIPM apparently took this up with Gaurav's employers - IBM/Lenovo - who supply them with a large amount of laptops every year [i.e. a lucrative customer] and asked them to get their employee "back in line". When Gaurav refused, citing that this was unrelated to the company in any manner, and that he was going to stick by his words, IIPM apparently informed his manager that if he was unable to rein in his employee, IIPM students would (apparently as a show of protest) lug all their laptops and burn them outside IBM's premises [er.. shouting IBM murdabad.. Acer Zindabad?]. Gaurav then actually chose to resign rather than retract anything..

Subsequently, [this shit just keeps going, doesn't it?] IIPM seems to have taken the pains of creating a series of blogs extolling IIPM and the rather dubious virtues of its father and son [the latter seems to come across as a self-important snob :S] team.. There is apparently another blog that's been started in Gaurav's name which apparently takes the opposite POV and indulges in some quality IIPM gluteal kissing.. heh this reminds me of Demosthenes and Locke from Ender's Game [Orson Scott Card]..

The entire series of events has been meticulously catalogued on desipundit, and has even warranted/claimed a section on IIPM's wiki page..

Twill be interesting to see what happens next.. /me gets out the pop corn and lawn chair..

-K