Interview: We cannot be intimidated

MBA Channel: In June “Career360” published an extensive story about IIPM. What was the reason to bring the story?
Mahesh Sarma: The raison D’etre for Careers360 is the interest of students and to bring in transparency and disclosure by educational institutes. IIPM was the subject matter because of its tall claims and serious allegations reported to us from many quarters.

There are some business schools, which denied that they are cooperating with IIPM, others continue to work with IIPM even after they have been confronted with its questionable practices. Have you been surprised that even reputable schools like Judge Business School at Cambridge, Haas School at Berkeley and Darden at Virginia didn´t stop the cooperation?
 
They may be good institutions but very unethical. And none had any response on the way IIPM uses their name and logo implying that the students get a certification from the listed foreign universities including Haas. Everyone knew about the misrepresentations in the IIPM ads but chose to look the other way. It is a pity, that a few dollars could make institutions of such repute sell their name.

What was the reaction of IIPM when you confronted them about your findings? Did they answer your questions?
As we sought clarification from IIPM, they knew about the story and started working with their partners to limit the damage. Our publisher got some not-so-nice messages too, from Arindam Choudhury, their honorary dean.

Was there any reaction from IIPM after the publication? Have you been sued for the article?
We wish they would use the opportunity to respond and give their side of the story, but they believe in every alternate means whenever a story is done against them. As of now IIPM has neither sued the magazine, the editor nor the writer.

What was the reaction of your readers?
 We received numerous mails and comments from students, parents and working professionals, and continue to so even nine months after the story was published. This is the first time in the Indian media that someone decided to stand up and publish, with proof, everything that is wrong with the institution. It also reemphasised our commitment to move journalism on education from the margins to the main stream. A leading politician and public intellectual, Dr. Arun Shourie, even cited this story in his book.

Did one of the major Indian publications report about your findings/story? If not, why are they avoiding the topic?
No. Unfortunately no other publication ever took up the story. Obviously, the business considerations override anything else. However, Vir Sanghvi, a well known journalist and editor, did talk about this story on his blog in a newspaper website as well as his own personal website.

Did you get any reaction from the government? Why there are no steps taken against IIPM?
We understand that a few parents and students also want to take up this issue in the courts for cheating. However, most importantly, the HRD (Human Resource Development) minister did promise us to look at all such incidents and come up with a law that makes educational malpractices punishable under criminal law. On February 17, as promised to us, the government set in motion the Malpractices in Education law, which once implemented would make some of these issues a criminal offence punishable with a jail term, too.

The accusations are not new. About four years ago Rashmi Bansal published a story in JAM magazine about the false claims of IIPM. Obviously nothing has changed since then. What makes IIPM so invulnerable?
 
Lack of will on the part of the regulatory regime (which is now changing), a media that is continuously blinking and a demand-supply situation that forces a host of students to seek out opportunities. However, thankfully a lot is changing since our exposé on IIPM and many other institutes.

As you may have seen on MBA Channel even the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), who in general knows the Indian university landscape very well, was going to give financial support to a joint program of a German university with IIPM. So IIPM seems to have good contacts to politics. I have even heard that the German ambassador in India some years ago praised IIPM as one of the leading business schools in India. Did you find out why IIPM has so much influence?
It cultivates the media systematically. Since it is also a heavy advertiser, offering it some edit space appears to be a quid pro quo arrangement. And as IIPM gains visibility, naturally the impressionable public and at times, even authorities tend to overlook its glaring inconsistencies.

MBA Channel also did some research and found out, that IIPM made false claims. In October IIPM has sent a warning to us, that we must remove the article about IIPM. Otherwise they will “appropriate steps” against MBA Channel. They claim, that IIPM has filed a “criminal defamation case” against Outlook and Careers360 and that the court has “come to the conclusion that the offences of the defamation have been prima facie committed” and “all the alleged accused will face the trial for writing and publishing the said articles”. Is this true? Or is this just another effort to intimidate journalists?

We understand that there is a case against Outlook and Maheshwer Peri, in his capacity as publisher of Outlook. Surprisingly, we did not see any story in Outlook against IIPM in the last year, so we do wonder what this case is against. In fact, we carried another story in July when they started claiming an association with University of Buckingham. Both the stories are live on our web site. Just to reiterate, there is no case against Careers360, the editor, writer and publisher of Careers360 for the publication of this story. I also understand that the defamation case filed against Outlook has been stayed by the Delhi High Court. Though IIPM keeps claiming admission of this suit by the Lower Court, they don’t talk about the stay given by a Higher Court. Instead of clarifying to the students, and taking the opportunity provided by us to correct any perceptions about themselves, IIPM tries roundabout ways of scuttling information flows. It is a purely diversionary tactic and they have always failed in the effort.

We are here to tell the truth and cannot be intimidated. Besides, there is a lot of support that our small publication has, from different quarters including politicians and the main stream media. We only wish IIPM would set its house in order, in the interest of students. We require private enterprise in education but with transparency and disclosure at their root.

Mahesh Sarma holds academic degrees in physics, international management and technology policy. He hopes to complete his doctoral studies from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi in the near future. Previous to editing careers360, Mahesh held a Research Associate Fellowship at JNU. During the fellowship he researched on innovation systems, impact of higher education, and ICT industries. He also has a long stint as a faculty in various B-Schools in India, and short stint as an entrepreneur.

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