IIMC faculty on chief: he sold us out

For the first time in the history of the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (IIM-C), the faculty, led by the director and the dean, slammed chairman of the board Y C Deveshwar accusing him of compromising the future of the institute by taking care of the interest of just one stakeholder: the HRD Ministry.

The faculty pledged to keep all options open to restore the autonomy of the institute, which it felt had been eroded by the chairman's "unilateral" resolution yesterday accepting the government's fee-cut order.

"Deveshwar has taken care of one stakeholder only and that is the MHRD," the faculty's resolution said, referring to the Union HRD Ministry which sparked off the current crisis by directing IIMs to slash their fees 80% and threatening them with action if they didn't.

It was a day of high drama. After Tuesday's shock of Deveshwar's resolution, the faculty went into a huddle this morning and decided to go public in the afternoon.

Deveshwar, who is also chairman of ITC Ltd, reacted fast, calling in the media to his boardroom for noon briefing.

Handing out fresh copies of the resolution, Deveshwar said: "Nothing is cast in stone. If the faculty is aggrieved, I would like to assuage their feeling. If one is to assume that I have erred, one can always go back after discussions. It's part of the democratic process we follow."