It could be the first occurrence, where the name of a former Prime Minister could be dropped from a leading educational institute. IIM Shillong will soon have the name of Rajiv Gandhi removed from the institute as per The Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Bill 2017. The dropping of the name of the former Prime Minister was first proposed in the year 2014 in the original draft of the bill. It was initially approved by the Cabinet and now recently introduced in the Lok Sabha.
Sources in IIM Shillong informed that the process is on and very soon, RGIIM Shillong will be known as IIM Shillong as per the amended bill.
The bill tabled in Parliament to give autonomy to IIMs has sparked a controversy because of its political overtones. The proposals in the bill include one to drop the prefix ‘Rajiv Gandhi’ from the name of IIM-Shillong, leading the opposition to question why.
Rajiv Gandhi’s names dropped from Govt Schemes
The proposal comes on the heels of the Union Budget dropping the former Prime Minister’s name from four central government schemes:
— Rajiv Gandhi Panchayat Sashaktikaran Abhiyan
—Rajiv Gandhi National Fellowship for Students with Disabilities
—Rajiv Gandhi National Fellowship for Scheduled Caste Students
—Rajiv Gandhi Khel Abhiyan
All the schemes were introduced under the Congress-led UPA.
Congress Cries Foul
Congress MP Adhir Chowdhury called the moves as a “de-Congressisation” bid of the Modi government. “This is a typical expression of the fascist forces. The first step is to demolish tradition, and erase history and diversity. The next step is to build a personality cult, all in the name of Narendra Modi,” he added.
The IIM bill, 2017, also proposes to change the name of IIM-Calcutta to IIM-Kolkata. Experts fear the move would not only erode the IIM-C brand value, but also lead to confusion since IIM-Kozhikode is also known as IIM-K.
