School Threatens Indian Blogger into Quitting

This story has lots of moving parts, but I'll try to tell it as simply as possible. An longterm IBM-India employee Gaurav Sabnis followed up on his personal blog on his own time with new information on an India Uncut magazine article that revealed the India Institute for Planning and Management (IIPM) had vastly overclaimed its academic performance in recruiting ads for new MBA candidates.

Gaurav's writing seems moderate and credible to me, and certainly was did not appear to be inflammatory.  IIPM first responded with a silly legal letter which Gaurav posted. When that didn't work, IIPM, who buys a lot of IBM computers went to Gaurav's boss and verbally rattled sabres. IBM chatted with Gaurav who then offered to put a disclaimer about his views being his own and not his employers, which did not satisfy the school who most decidedly did not act with the graciousness one might expect from an allegedly highly credential academic institution of higher degrees.

Instead, the school threatened IBM, telling them that if Gaurav was not fired immediately, a student protest would be held and students would burn their Thinkpads in protest. Gaurav wrote that he wished to keep his right to free speech, yet wanted to do nothing to embarrass his employer.

So he resigned. Personally, I think he should have hanged tough.  If the school had arranged the protest and burned valuable computers, they would have looked stupid and petty.  It also would have undoubtedly ignited further investigations of the school's claims which I have a hunch hold water about as well as a collander.

This is something new. Robert and I found no incident of a blogger resigning because a customer got irate and used ugly tactics.  IBM would be wise and gain the most admiration, by refusing to accept Gaurav's resignation and sending a cannister of gasoline with some matches to the school officials. That's the best way for a powerful and respected company to act against the threats of customers who display questionable integrity and tactic reminiscent of the American Mafia.

Comments

[Varun]

Nice of you to blog about this. But you have got the name of the school wrong. It is 'Indian Institute of Planning and Management'... do did you do it deliberately just in case...

[shel Israel]

Thanks Varun. I did not do it deliberately and have made the correction. I apologize for the arror in such an important piece.

[Deepak Jois]

Instead, the school threatened IBM, telling them that if Gaurav was not fired immediately, a student protest would be held and students would burn their Thinkpads in protest.

The school never asked IBM to fire Gaurav. It just asked IBM to urge the blogger to remove the posts.

[shel Israel]

Deepak,
Your contention is different than multiple other sources. Can you tell me how you know this to be true?

[Deepak Jois]

Shel,
I think the source that is most credible would be Gaurav's blog itself, and the entry to which you have linked to, and I am quoting from that.

The next day, i.e Sunday morning, I got a call from him again. He said that he had communicated to IIPM that I had made a personal post and IBM could not be held responsible for it. But apparently, the Dean of IIPM wrote him a mail saying that the IIPM Students Union had decided that if my blog posts were not deleted, then they would gather all the Thinkpads they had been given by the institute, and burn them in front of the IBM office in Delhi. Yes, that's right. Burn laptops!

This only makes a mention of deletion of blog posts and no mention of firing the blogger.

What other sources are you talking about?

[puneet]

Intresting to see people from different parts of world blogging on this issue

shel Israel the information above pointed by deepak is mistaken “Instead, the school threatened IBM, telling them that if Gaurav was not fired immediately, a student protest would be held and students would burn their Thinkpads in protest”

probably u should correct edit it, it could create more misunderstandings

the correct thing it been alleged and reported “that school pressurized asking iibm to ask gaurav to remove the post and if he ddint do it student would burn thinkpad which they had bought and gaurav quit on this own he didn’t wanted to see company in which he worked to sufer because of this person views…”
and yes ofcourse this reported news is yet to be acknowledged by ibm or school

also i would like to share my finding the same school has been indulging in search engine spamming which shocking why would there be a need for a business shcool to do such thing

http://puneetworld.indiablogs.org/archives/2005/10/is_iipm_spammin_1.html

[nave]

THIS IS SOME WHAT A BAD TO COMMENT ON A REPUTED INSTITUTION. I WOULD NEITHER COMMENT ON THE BLOGGERS NOR IIPM.

[Sanketh]

This whole issue is highly ridiculous. If IIPM thinks that Gaurav's claims are unsubstantiated, then they should be taking up the issue with Gaurav. Not with his employer! They cannot be threatening IBM with action. Especially because the views are those of the indvidual and not of the corporate.

If IIPM believes that it has a legitimate claim, then IIPM should be taking action action against Gaurav (in his personal capacity), not as an employee of IBM.

IIPM has legal recourse - they can take Gaurav to court over this and then prove that his claims are incorrect. If they are so sure and convinced about their academic performance, then they have nothing to fear. Threatening his employers and trying to get Gaurav fired is no way for a so-called premier institute to deal with this. Its just plain trivial!