Union HRD Minister Murli Manohar Joshi wants the IIMs to reduce their fees from (a very reasonable) Rs 1.5 lakhs to a mere Rs 15,000. That’s less than what I paid for my 3-year-old to attend a play school in Mumbai. And, no, large multinationals did not descend down the OK Play toy slide and offer a Rs-6-lakhs-a-year job to my toddler. IIM alumni are gaping in disbelief at how the CAT paper leak, unfortunate as it is, is being used to flog the whole system. They are furiously exchanging emotions and e-mails on their egroups. But apart from dashing off a petition to the president of India, we’re feeling rather helpless about what we can do to Keep the Faith. Meanwhile, the 24-hour TV channels are doing all they can, because this is a pump-up-the-ratings story. More than stamp scams and ministers accepting bribes in Chhattisgarh, the CAT leak strikes terror — and despair — in the very heart of middle class India. IIMs don’t just stand for high standards in management education. They stand for the little that is Fair, Free and Worth Striving for in the Indian Education system. It’s shocking — and mind expanding — to study in an institution where not one exam but a series of factors (including your “class participation”!) count towards your final grade. Not to mention mid-terms where you are free to stroll out for a drink of water and even refer to textbooks (they won’t help you anyways!). IIM professors set their own rules for courses. The two-year grind imparts hard core fundas — accounting, finance, marketing — as well as intangibles. Like ERI (Exploration of Roles and Identity), a full credit course where students spend six days away from campus and civilisation, “discovering” themselves. Or LVMR (Leadership, Vision, Meaning and Reality) which involves the study of classic figures in literature. Would this kind of freedom continue with a minister constantly looking over the institute’s shoulder? Mr Joshi, what you need to monitor are the hundreds of recently sprung up small time “MBA institutes”, offering shoddy courses with little value addition (or job prospects) at exorbitant prices. The Businessworld magazine reports we have 840 MBA institutes today churning out 65,000 graduates! And how about also looking into the medical exam leak bit which the CAT scam kingpin has been conducting? Assuming a couple of frauds do manage to clear CAT and fool a panel of experienced selectors, the worst they can do is kill a company. Doctors? They kill people. The writer is president, IIM Ahmedabad Alumni Association, Mumbai
