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Education News

educationists would be well-advised signatory to an open letter
to tread carefully to ensure the un- addressed to corporate India
usual goodwill India enjoys in this tiny urging it to protest “increas-
mountain kingdom is not blown. ing hate and dehumanising
Special correspondent (Thimpu, speech and radicalisation”
Bhutan) in the country. Perhaps
KARNATAKA drawing inspiration from
Speech freedom row Dr. Malghan, in January,
Dr. Gopal Das, professor of
marketing at IIM-B, accused
or the past year, the premier the institute’s manage-
Indian Institute of Manage- ment of indulging in “caste
Fment, Bengaluru (IIM-B, discrimination”. An internal
estb.1973) — one of the original ABC probe has been ordered
(Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Cal- against him.
cutta) IIMs promoted by the Central IIM Bangalore. Inset: Prof. Deepak Malghan IIM-B — a publicly fund-
government and routinely ranked ed institution — is reluctant
among the global Top 50 B-schools “We strongly condemn the misuse to comment on this issue. Following
by The Financial Times, London of IIM (B) Service Rules to stifle several emails/phone calls, IIM-
— has been experiencing faculty academic freedom on campus. It is a B emailed this statement to your
turmoil. Earlier this year in Febru- great shame that a premier institute correspondent: “IIM-Bangalore
ary, in an unprecedented disciplinary like IIM (B) is violating an inter- operates under well-established and
directive, the institute’s management nationally accepted set of rights to faculty and Board approved Service
issued a “gag order” against Prof. Academic Freedom… the recent “de- Rules governing employee conduct,
Deepak Malghan, an assistant motion” by IIM-B is the culmination with any disciplinary action taken
professor of policy at IIM-B. of a series of persecutions that he has in accordance with transparent and
This was because an internal been subject to since 2018… we call well-defined procedures. The Insti-
inquiry committee concluded that upon IIM-Bangalore to immediately tute is not in agreement with certain
several tweets posted by him on withdraw all sanctions against Dr. cause-and-effect relationships as
social media platform ‘X’ (formerly Deepak Malghan.” mentioned in the letter, and as some
Twitter) in February had “violated Early sprouts of this confrontation aspects of the matter are sub judice
the institute’s service rules”. A month manifested in 2017 for Dr. Malghan, we request all parties to refrain from
later, in March, IIM-B demoted him an alum of the University of Mary- speculation. Therefore, the Institute
from the rank of associate to assis- land and a recipient of the VKRV Rao has no further comment currently.”
tant professor. Prize for Social Sciences. That year, cademics are quick to connect
Dr. (Prof). Malghan’s transgres- he co-authored an essay published in Athe “persecution” of Prof. Mal-
sion is that he commented that Economic and Political Weekly com- ghan with the larger issue of dimin-
several premier B-schools, including menting on lack of faculty diversity ishing freedom of speech and debate
IIM-B, are flouting the Central gov- in the IIMs. This article was followed on India’s higher education campus-
ernment’s student/faculty reserva- up with a series of tweets criticising es. Especially since the BJP govern-
tion policy under which 22 percent the country’s 21 IIMs for equity and ment was swept to power at the
of student capacity and teaching inclusion deficiency. In 2018, he Centre in 2014 and in several states.
positions are reserved for Scheduled again invited the wrath of the man- In March 2021, renowned public
castes and tribes. Prof. Malghan agement when he expressed solidar- intellectual Dr. Pratap Bhanu
challenged IIM-B’s gag order and ity with some students protesting Mehta resigned from the position
rank demotion in the Karnataka high against Hindustan Unilever for the of vice chancellor of the high-ranked
court, which stayed the order. company’s environmental pollution Ashoka University, Sonipat, report-
In October, this issue got new record. edly because the management of
wing when 800 academics “from the Next year, Malghan wrote to this privately-promoted university
across world” wrote an ‘open letter’ the director of the top-ranked had made it “abundantly clear” that
to the IIM-B management condemn- IIM-Ahmedabad querying why the he needed to tone down his weekly
ing the “long-standing vindictive B-school had not implemented the column in the Indian Express in
harassment and persecution” of Union government’s SC/ST reserva- which he frequently criticises acts of
Prof. Malghan. In their letter dated tion policy in its Ph D programme. omission and commission of the rul-
October 23, 887 academicians wrote: Last year in August, he was a ing dispensation.

18 EDUCATIONWORLD NOVEMBER 2024