PM must intervene

It is now manifestly clear that HRD Minister Murli Manohar Joshi is up to no good. As long as it seemed that he was fighting the IIM boards only on the issue of lower fees, one could label his intervention as merely misguided.

Now it seems positively mala fide, if one is to believe reports about the behaviour of government nominees at Wednesday's meeting of the IIMA Society.

Ostensibly, the pow-wow at the Society's meeting was still about fees, but the government's representatives decided that this was a good time to read the riot act to those who wanted to toe an independent line.

This cannot but be interpreted as an effort to browbeat the organisation. The issue now is no longer about fees; it is about the independence of the institution.

India needs independent higher education institutions that can, over time, hold their own against the best in the world. This is far from being the case now because of overdependence on government funds and patronage.

Even in the case of the IIMs, the huge demand for seats should not blind us to the fact that these institutions lag far behind the Harvards and Whartons in terms of intellectual capital, especially the quality of faculty, research and industry interaction.

This can be verified very simply: other things being equal (fees, etc), would students opt for a Harvard MBA or an IIM? The IIMs and other top management institutions get a huge number of applications not because they are delivering the goods (though they are getting better), but because students cannot afford the Harvards and Whartons.

Equally, the reason why Indian business is happy recruiting from the IIMs is the sheer quality of students getting in.

Anybody who clears CAT or XAT can safely be reckoned to be a resource of high intellectual potential, at least as far as IQ and analytical abilities are concerned.

If one accepts that the IIMs have a long way to go to meet global standards, the right thing for the government to do is to encourage them to go for excellence.

This calls for more investment. While governments can certainly bring in the funds, it makes better sense for such institutions to find the resources themselves instead of burdening the exchequer with their demands.

Far from allowing them to do so, Mr Joshi is now trying to do the opposite. If the idea is to ensure that poorer students are not kept out of such institutions merely because of high fees, there are simpler ways to achieve that.

For example, the government could put in place a simple scheme whereby anyone obtaining admission to any IIM will be automatically eligible for a bank loan. If needed, the government can guarantee loans taken up by meritorious students from the weaker sections.

But no, what Mr Joshi wanted was not to give access to the poorer sections but to assert his authority over the IIMs. This is despicable, coming as it does from someone who is a Cabinet minister with a background in education himself.

It is time the Prime Minister stepped in to stop this rot. It is obvious that the minister is not battling on behalf of the penniless poor, but to nurse his bruised ego.