Under pressure from the government, the IIMs have decided to postpone their admission process till the matter is resolved in the Supreme Court.
NEW DELHI/BANGALORE: In the game of who blinks first it would seem the IIMs have conceded defeat. Under pressure from the government, the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) have decided to postpone their admission process till the matter is resolved in the Supreme Court. Conceding to the Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry the IIMs, which had only last week challenged the government on the OBC issue, have changed their stance and announced on Friday that they would offer admissions only after the quota issue is resolved.
“In pursuance to the advice of HRD ministry and in view of the fact that the implementation of Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act, 2006 is sub-judiced in the honourable Supreme Court, we have taken this decision,” an IIM-A statement says.
This softening of their stand by the IIMs comes in response to a fresh directive sent on Thursday by the HRD ministry, asking them to strictly comply with the previous directive and put on hold the admission process, pending the Supreme Court hearing next week. In a strongly worded letter, the HRD ministry has made it clear that any unilateral decision by any central educational institution would be seen as a violation of the government’s order.
The B-schools had set April 21 as a deadline for the government, and had even threatened to go ahead with the admission process if the matter was not resolved by then. The IIMs had also called for a meeting to finalise the matter on Friday in New Delhi, but had to hurriedly call it off after receiving the letter.
“Since the hearing is not complete, it will be fair to postpone the admission and we will complete it as early as possible,” said HRD Minister Arjun Singh. Without specifically saying it, Singh also made it clear that institutions have no business to overrule government’s decision.
“They (IIMs) have a fairly good idea of how they have to conduct themselves as institutions run by the state,” Singh added. Despite being autonomous institutes, the IIMs are controlled by the HRD ministry on important issues. “And when it comes to something as important as reservation and government policies, the government will let them know who the boss is,” said an official from the HRD ministry.
The government feels that the institutes’ persistence to go ahead without the quota would not only weaken their case before the apex court but also give other institutes the courage to go the same way.
Dismissing the suggestion that there was a confrontation between the ministry and B-schools on the issue, Singh said, “I don’t believe in confrontation. There is no question of somebody imposing his superiority. We make concessions for each other.”
Upset by the diktat, IIM-A director Bakul Dholakia said “It is our responsibility to safeguard them and therefore we cannot wait beyond a certain point.” The HRD ministry though has made clear its intention of implementing OBC reservations from this year itself.
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