Join the fight against IIPM and the string of fake blogs

Gaurav Sabnis and Rashmi Bansal have been targeted by IIPM and it’s so called students and alumni. Gaurav has received a legal notice from IIPM and Rashmi has been the victim of malicious accusations and some extremely distasteful personal comments.

The fake blogs, which have started talking ill about Gaurav and Rashmi, have just sprung up in the last few days and don’t have more than a single post in their blog. It is almost certain that these fake blogs have been started by the same person(s) (using different user names). What Gaurav and Rashmi have attempted to do is to examine whether the tall claims (about placements, faculty and infrastructure) made by IIPM are really true or not. If IIPM really believes that they have the best-in-class facilities it is better that the placements and infrastructure do the talking. Such direct brutal attacks on established bloggers will do more harm than good. Any blog bashing exercise by IIPM will definitely backfire at them as more people will realize the true nature of IIPM. Such offensive comments are only going to increase the hatred among the public in general and the student community in particular. The actions by IIPM and the baseless comments/accusations by the IIPM students definitely show that they have never come across terms like discipline and ethics during the course of their MBA.

The MSM in India is unlikely to take up such issues as they are dependent on advertising revenue from these institutes. If you feel strongly about this issue, I urge you to take this up and post it in some form or ther other so that such fake blogs and the institutes are nailed down. Let’s join hands to fight against this menace. Let them not underestimate the power of the Blogosphere. The Blog readers are a well-informed lot and they are in the best position to decide which side is right. They have been following Gaurav’s blog and Rashmi’s blog for sometime and they will definitely vouch for the credibility of these two bloggers.

Update 1: JAM MAG has also received a legal notice from IIPM

Update 2: Patrix of Nerve Endings Firing Away wants to absolve the ‘real’ students from the IIPM controversy (those behind the fake blogs will not be spared)

Update 3: Gaurav Sabnis explains his stand. Hats off to Gaurav for his determination and resolve to stand up for the truth.

Update 4: Global Voices Online makes a call for Freedom of Speech

Update 5: Amit Varma of India Uncut sums up the developments

Update 6: Michael Higgins has an insightful post on the importance of Reputation as a Business Asset (especially in the field of education)

Update 7: Leading international blog Instapundit picks up the story (InstaPundit follow-up article Part 2). Some more reactions from Jeff Ooi of Malaysia and Think Jose.

Update 8: Anna of Sepia Mutiny hits out at IIPM. Sepia Mutiny also has a follow-up article titled "Boycotts and IIPM".

Update 9: IIPM is the now the most searched term on Technorati (Global Blog Search). Varun has a snapshot here.

Update 10: This issue is now being discussed actively in all forms of online media (email forwards, egroups, discussion boards, mailing lists etc). Abhishek Thakore explains how the democratic people-owned media (Blogosphere) and its web of networks can influence more people than traditional print (ToI) ads

Update 11: DesiPundit has comprehensive coverage

Update 12: To track the developments through various Blog Search engines visit Technorati, Google Blog Search and Ice Rocket

Update 13: Abi of Nanopolitan wants employers (corporates) to verify some of the information mentioned in the IIPM Placement Statistics.

Update 14: Techmag throws some light on the legal validity of the notice that Gaurav Sabnis received. Sudhish informs us that the so called legal notices may just be threats.

Update 15: “IIPM doesn’t just owe Gaurav an apology; it owes him his life back”, says Nilanjana (Part 1 and Part 2)

Update 16: Patrix explains the intentions of the Blogosphere in an Open Letter to IIPM

Update 17: Dhaaba discusses the IIPM issue over a glass of lassi (A laugh riot). Great Bong plans to start Indian Institute of International Dreamers (I3D). His post indicates that he has grandiose plans.

Update 18: Indian MSM picks up the story - Hindustan Times, Mumbai Mirror, Daily Pioneer, NDTV

Update 19: Gaurav's Prof criticizes IIPM. Prof Madhukar Shukla also condemns IIPM.

Update 20: Kiruba designs some "Support Buttons" for us to show our support for Gaurav and Rashmi.

Update 21: Puneet accuses IIPM of spamming Google, Yahoo and MSN search engines. He also has screenshots to prove his claim

Update 22: Arzan probes about IIPM's Toronto connection and Belgian alliance. Curious Gawker also manages to throw some light on the web of alliances surrounding IMI.

Update 23: The Committee to Protect Bloggers pledges support.

Update 24: An Online Petition has been created to protest against IIPM. Please sign the petition. Pls help in spreading the word about this petition.

Other reactions in the Blogosphere (this list will be updated frequently): Harini Calamur, Press Talk, Varun's Thoughtful Chaos, Srini, The Arbit Council, DesiPundit, Anshul, Charu, Patrix, Muthuvel, Thalassa Mikra, Jagan, Vijay Krishna, Vatsan, Mridula, Jo, Amrit Hallan, Ash, Shivam Vij, Swaroop, Jujitsu Mode, Uma, Abi, Toufeeq Hussain, Shub, Ranj, Shivam, Abhishek, Rajan, Havoc, Kaushik, Chandru, Alpha-Q, Mandar, Kaushal, Chenthil, Tony, Bonatellis, Apurv Pandit, Scudie, Press Talk - K, Sriyansa, Miss J, Neha, TablePost.Com, Chitthacharcha (Hindi), Sujatha, Hitchiker, Sowmya, Saket, Varun (Part 2), Press Talk (Part 2), Vijay Krishna (Part 2), Dhananjay, Sriram, The Comic Project, Curious Gawker, Jai Arjun Singh, Secular Right India, Jaya Jha, Navin, Sudhish Kamath, Ravikiran, Vinaya, Niket, George Thomas, Ajay Bhat, Jinal, Om Malik, Kitabkhana, Jagan (Part 2), Ranjan Kant, BigBlogLog, Kamesh, Transmogrifier, Chernoff, Varun (Part 3), Hitanshu, Srikar, Rajkumar, Almost Useless, Falstaff, Sunil Laxman, Mercatus, Arzan, Nitin Pai, Veer Jain, Nupur Dave, Nirav, Jitendra Mohan, Mayank, Varnam, Soumyadip, Uma MD, Vishal, TTG, Chandru (Part 2), Angry Grad Student, Anantha Narayan, Pradyot, Amit Chaudhry, Sandesh, Dilip D'Souza, Chenthil (Part 2), MMK, Salman's Shirt, Bharat, Nikhil, Kaushik, Aditya Kuber, Icarus Prakash (Tamil), Infinite Circle, Ketan, Durga, Kamlesh Singh, Pankaj, Harish Kumar, Aparna, Ashish, Swarnasrikrishnan, Rachel, Shel Israel, Rahul, Kaushik and Bidisha, Srijith, Anand, I-Sight, Logical Thinking, Sakshi, Shivam Vij (Part 2), Gururajan, Dhananjay (Part 2), Bhagya, Kunal, Sandeep, Ramanand, Satish Vijaykumar, Ashwin BS, Flying Death, Vayanasala (Malayalam), Shivangi, Govar, Harini (Part 2), Shreyas Ghuge, Prufrock, Amit Chaudhry (Part 2), The Unknown Indian, Prasoon, Killer Bunty, Suhail Kazi, Elne, Abhishek, Ravi, Aishwarya, Ram Viswanathan, Curious Gawker (Part 2), Wanderstruck, Leela, Vishwanathan, The Bat, Scribbler (Part 2), Vaibhav, Weblogsky, Divya, Sujith, Jroller, Madhoo, Sowmya (Part 2), Shoefiend, Varun (Part 4), Ash (Part 2), Ravikiran (Part 2), Veena, Salt Water Blues, Hyperorg, Ashutosh, India Blogs, Karthik, Arnold D'Souza, DesiTrain, Suds, Vijay Krishna (Part 3), Saurabh, Senthil, Arzan (Part 2), Uma (Part 2), Urmea, Kingsley, Sad Old Bong, Anshul, Rajesh, Lubu, Ravikumar, Neha (Part 2), Varun (Part 4), Anti, Instant Kaapi, Lazy Geek, Minorscale, Ferrari Prabhu, Emma, Kishore, Chenthil (Part 3), Aekta, Kashyapapeya

Technorati Tag: IIPM