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PMO pressure on Arjun to resolve IIM deadlock

Upset over Singh’s move to bulldoze them into delaying the admission till disposal of the HRD Ministry’s appeal in the Supreme Court, the IIM directors are understood to have approached Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and conveyed their “worries and disappointments.”

Buckling under pressure, Singh took a U-turn within five hours of asserting that the IIMs will have to wait till the issue was resolved in the court. In his second Press conference on Tuesday, he said that IIMs issue will be resolved in the evening.

Sources said that Manmohan Singh has directed the HRD Ministry to find a way out to resolve crisis, which apparently led to Arjun Singh’s U-turn.

When he was asked at his first Press conference whether his Ministry would give any fresh directive to the IIMs so that they could go ahead with the admissions, he said “I do not think any fresh directive is needed.”

Singh also claimed that all IIMs were cooperating as basically these were Government institutions and not “private institutions”. “It is not that they have become independent”, he said.

Following pressure from the PMO, Singh held a long meeting with his officials in the evening but there was no word on how the HRD proposed to resolve the issue. Sources said the IIMs may be communicated the HRD Minister’s decision on Wednesday.

“We are still waiting for some communication from the Ministry. There has been no communication even after the Supreme Court’s rejection of the Centre’s plea on the OBC quota issue nor over the date of the next hearing”, an IIM (Bangalore) spokesperson said.

“The Ministry is well aware of the situation and the time constraint relating to admissions. It is only fair that they give us reasonable time and tell us what to do”, the spokesperson said when asked about the Supreme Court fixing an early hearing of the case.

He clarified that reasonable time would mean that the decision should not impact the running of the next academic year or delay it greatly. “That is the deciding factor”, he said.

In Kolkata, IIM-C Dean Ashis Bhattachara said it would wait for a directive from the Centre before acting on the admission process for the new academic year. He also said the new session for IIM-C would begin from June 23.

The IIM (Kozhikode) said it too was awaiting a fresh directive from the HRD Ministry to go ahead with the announcement of admission list.

“We are sure that the Government will convey its decision soon”, a spokesman of the Institute said.

The IIMs are worried that the delay in starting the admission process will not only affect the quality of intake but also the completion of syllabus.

The IIM admission process normally begins from April 12 and selection and rejection of application process ends by the third week of May. The actual academic session begins from last week of June.

Sources said that some IIM directors also asked for an urgent appointment with the HRD Minister to resolve the issue at the earliest.

Incidentally, not only the IIMs but the IITs and admissions in other streams like medical would be affected in case the issue is not resolved by the next date of SC’s hearing on May 8.

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