BJP ‘vision’ just the opposite of what the Doctor (Joshi) and his team ordered

So the party has promised to do what its own minister and his bureaucrats have been defiantly undoing ever since the IIM-Government stand-off began over Joshi’s unilateral order slashing fees from Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 30,000.

In fact, the Government refused to give an undertaking on its commitment to autonomy of IIMs in the Supreme Court prompting the court to take a second look at the PIL challenging the fee cut. Despite several attempts, Joshi, campaigning in Allahabad, was unavailable for comment.

Spokesperson and general secretary Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi told The Indian Express: ‘‘We are honest towards our commitment made in the manifesto. Dr Joshi is also working towards this vision. But there are some technical problems in it and we will sort them out.’’ Asked what these ‘‘technical problems,’’ were, he declined to comment.

Consider what Joshi and his team have done so far that directly contradicts the BJP’s manifesto:

• Issue the 80% fee cut order without taking the IIM faculty into confidence.

• Unleash bureaucrats—Joint Secretary Pandey—to browbeat the IIM faculty. In fact, Pandey, at the IIM Ahmedabad Society meeting, threatened to dissolve the society and take over the management of the institute if it sought legal redress.

• Appointing Government proxies on the board of IIM Kolkata days before the meeting. One of them is then quoted as saying that the board has no opposition to the fee cut.

• At least two IIMs have put it on record that the fee cut is part of a Government package that will only erode their autonomy. There is talk of doing away with the Common Admission Test, the group discussion and the interview. Says Subodh Bhargav, ex-CII president and a member of the IIM Indore Board, ‘‘I am glad that BJP is saying they would grant autonomy to these centres of excellence while their government’s ministry is acting in a contrary manner.’’

He says Pandey’s direct involvement and interference showed how the ministry was keen to have ‘‘bureaucratic control’’ of the IIMs. Bhargav said the Ministry had launched a three-pronged attack on the IIMs’ autonomy: by limiting the IIM corpus fund, by not allowing donations to come directly and by reducing fees.