Retired officers slam IIMB faculty for 'open letter' to corporates

A group of 23 retired IAS, IPS, IFS and defence veterans has written to IIM Bangalore Board of Governors chairperson Dr Devi Prasad Shetty seeking action against some faculty members who recently called upon Corporate India to "de-fund" hate speech. 

The counter group urged Dr Shetty, a noted cardiac surgeon, to "ensure such incidents of dubious nature" do not recur on the IIMB's campus. 

Earlier this month, 11 present and six retired IIMB faculty members asked Corporate India to stop funding misinformation and hate speech. 

“The very title of the letter that says 'to defund hate speech' reflects their bankrupt mindset and ideological bias,” the group of retired bureaucrats stated. They also frowned upon the use of words such as "increasing risk of violent conflicts", "hatred towards minorities", "genocide", "annihilation of social fabric" and "silence of authorities" in the letter addressed to corporate leaders.

“...the intention of the signatories is to encourage disruptive forces and destabilize India,” the retired officers told Dr Shetty. “We are confident that Corporate India is fully aware of ground realities and will not be carried away by the uninvited advice of armchair academicians who are living in a self-imposed ignorance and typically 'we know all' arrogance," they stated. 

"Corporate India, as partners in the economic progress of our country, always stood by national endeavour and contributed to the genuine efforts for realizing the dream of India becoming 'Viswa Guru'," they stated. 

"The open letter to Corporate India...will definitely push a misleading narrative and strengthen the anti-national elements that are bent upon sabotaging the sincere efforts of Government of India and various departments that are on the path of facilitating an unprecedented growth and all-round development in social, economic, educational, cultural and political arena," the letter stated. 

The signatories of the counter letter include K Sreedhar Rao, S L Gangadharappa, M Madan Gopal, P B Ramamurthy, M Lakshminarayana, Ramesh Zalki, N Prabhakar (retired IAS); M N Krishnamurthy, Gopal Hosur, Bhaskar Rao (retired IPS); Brij Kishore Singh, Ganesh Sugur, RMN Sahai, Kanwerpal, Kishan Singh Sugara, Indu B Srivastava, Narendra Deo Tiwari, R Raju (retired IFS); SP Singh, K N Mirji, Vikas Yajurvedi, Rajiv Kalra (retired armed forces personnel) and former IRS officer Prakash JP.