In a counter to a section of current and retired faculty members of the Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore (IIMB) asking corporate leaders to “de-fund the spread of misinformation and hate speech”, a group of 23 retired IAS, IPS, IFS, and Defence Services of Karnataka have written to Devi Prasad Shetty, chairman of the board of governors of the IIMB, seeking action against the faculty members who have written the letter to the corporate leaders.
They appealed to Dr. Shetty “to ensure that no such incidents of dubious nature happen on the campus of IIMB again”.
“The very title of the letter that says ‘to defund hate speech’ reflects their bankrupt mindset and ideological bias,” said retired IAS, IPS, IFS, and Defence Services officers and condemned the use of words and phrases such as ‘increasing risk of violent conflicts’, ‘hatred towards minorities’, ‘genocide’, ‘annihilation of social fabric’, and ‘silence of authorities’ in the letter to the corporate leaders.
The 23 signatories have also marked a copy of the letter to the Union Minister for Human Resources, the Secretary in the Ministry, and the Director of IIM Bangalore to take appropriate action against current and retired faculty members of the IIMB.
A few days ago, in an open letter, 11 present and six retired IIMB faculty members said India’s internal security is “fragile...with an increasing risk of violent conflicts in the country”. The open letter is signed “in our personal capacity”, they had said.
“The intention of the signatories is to encourage disruptive forces and destabilise India,” said the retired officers in the letter to Dr. Shetty.
“We are confident that corporate India is fully aware of ground realities and will not be carried away by the uninvited advise of armchair academicians who are living in a self-imposed ignorance and typically ‘we know all’ arrogance. Corporate India, as a partner in the economic progress of our country, always stood by the national endeavour, contributing to the genuine efforts for realising the dream of India becoming “Viswa Guru”, the retired officers said.
The 23 signatories to the letter are: K. Sreedhar Rao, S.L. Gangadharappa, M. Madan Gopal, P.B. Ramamurthy, M. Lakshminarayana, Ramesh Zalki, and N. Prabhakar, all retired IAS officers; M.N. Krishnamurthy, Gopal Hosur, and Bhaskar Rao, all retired IPS officers; Brij Kishore Singh, Ganesh Sugur, R.M.N. Sahai, Kanwerpal, Kishan Singh Sugara, Indu B. Srivastava, Narendra Deo Tiwari, and R. Raju, all retired IFS officers; and S.P. Singh, K.N. Mirji, Vikas Yajurvedi, Rajiv Kalra, and Prakash J.P., all retired armed service officers.
