Ahmedabad, New Delhi:
In the first casualty of HRD Minister Kapil Sibal's tough talk on Tuesday, the united front of the IITs and IIMs against the education ministry is crumbling.
The IIMs now seem to be backing down from coming together with the IITs on a common platform and taking on the HRD ministry over pay and autonomy.
In a clear signal to the IITs, the top business schools of the country the IIMs made it clear, for now, that they will mind their own business.
"They expressed an interest in the cause. They have the same problems as us, but there is no question of goading anyone into joining us," said Dr Soumyo Mukherji, Professor, School of Biosciences and Bioengineering, IIT.
"We are intellectuals and society looks at us from a different point of view. We are not trade unionists and so, we can't talk and behave like trade unions," said Anil Gupta, member Faculty Council, IIM-A.
Two of the IIMs were supposed to attend the IIT faculty federation meeting in Kolkata, but backed out at the last minute.
IIMs do not want to take the IIT route of protesting in public and are now planning to initiate a dialogue with the ministry.
And the ministry is more than keen to take them up on this.
IIM Ahmedabad board is meeting on Friday. The institute's director's forum will meet on Saturday, which is expected to be attended by all six directors.
NDTV has learnt that the ministry here in Delhi will then invite them for a dialogue. But the IITs may have lost their chance.
"I wish someone from IITs had come to me with a vision for the institute. Instead of pay band 4, why don't you talk a bit about IITs 2024," said Sibal.
Whoever holds the purse strings will have the final say and after combative ministry's message has clearly gone to IITs also, so their hunger strike they say is now a fast...not to back down or take on HRD but to simply register their protest.