IIMs: Govt’s control instinct takes over

The Indian Institute of Management (Amendment) Bill, 2023, passed by both Houses of parliament, will rob the country’s top management institutions of much of the autonomy and independence that they have enjoyed. The bill gives the government powers to appoint directors of its choice and exercise control over the functioning of the institutions. In the existing system, the board of governors (BoG) appoints the director on the basis of the recommendations of a search-cum-selection committee. As per the new law, the board has to take approval from the Visitor, who is the President of India. The selection committee will also have a chairman nominated by the Visitor. This means that the government will have a decisive say in the appointment, through the President. The way such systems of appointment work in the country, nobody else will have any say, and the search committee will be reduced to a procedural device. 

The government will also have powers to lay down conditions for the suspension or dissolution of the IIM board. The Visitor is given more powers, including the power to make audits, institute inquiries and issue directives which will be binding on the IIM management. The IIM Act of 2017 had created a system in which the institutions had sufficient operational and functional autonomy. They were recognised as “institutions of national importance with a view to help them attain standards of global excellence”. The government is actually tempted to control them because they are important institutions and produce leaders in various fields. Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said in the Lok Sabha that the government will not interfere in the functioning of the IIMs. But this assurance cannot be taken seriously when it wants to control the leadership appointments at these institutions. The very fact that the government thought that there was a need for a new law shows that it wants to make changes. Considering that control over education —from the school level to college and university and eminent institutions — has been a matter of priority for the government, the new law cannot be seen in any other light. 

In the past also, governments have tried to extend their influence and control over the IIMs. The government had tried to regulate fees at the IIMs in 2004. Some ideas in the present bill were considered by the government in 2015 but were not pursued in the face of criticism. But governments do not give up. It was the autonomy that it enjoyed that emboldened IIM Ahmedabad to reject a directive form the education ministry in 2016 to review a doctoral thesis that described the BJP as a “pro-Hindu upper caste party”. That autonomy is in danger now.