Will IIMB give a public explanation for promoting Gita event in their name?

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru:

A handful of Indian Institute of Management Bengaluru (IIMB) faculty members used the institute’s name to organise an event that promoted Hindi scriptures. But they have been coerced to stop after many colleagues protested, an alumnus who was part of the initiative has reportedly claimed.

Bahutva Karnataka, a civil rights group whose objective is to tackle communal and caste disharmony, brought to light recently a Google Form issued by the ‘Practial Vedanta IIMB’, a discussion group that sought donations for a Gita Jayanti event on December 4 at the Anandamayi Bhagavata Bhavana, JP Nagar, Bengaluru.

The Google Form requested prospective donors to send money to Bhardwaj, and mentioned a schedule of events such as Puja from 4:30pm, followed by Akhanda Gita Parayanam and Pravachana by “Guruji” and a “Prof. Mahadevan Sir.”

Bahutva Karnataka tweeted and said, “IIM Bengaluru, how come your name is being used to collect donations for a religious activity? Have you sanctioned this? Would you allow your official spaces to be used by other religious or caste groups?” After the rigorous protest by the civil rights group, the organisers changed their group’s name to ‘Practical Vedanta Samavada’.

According to a media report, Bhardwaj has said that IIMB was added to the group’s name by mistake. He has also said that they used the IIMB tag and campus space for discussions on “life lessons” retrieved from Hindu texts until two years ago but changed their name and held events outside the premises after a few of their colleagues objected to it.

Professor Mahadevan has been the main resource person on these matters. Mahadevan also happens to be the author of the infamous ‘Introduction to Indian Knowledge Systems: Concepts and Applications,’ which was released only this year. He was an active member of the committee on “Indian Knowledge Systems” which was recently put together by the union education ministry, under K Radhakrishnan, former ISRO chairman.

In the past decade, there have been scenarios where public funded institutions and government science conferences have promoted ideas that are connected to “ancient India wisdom”. However, these same ideas have been condemned by many scientists as pseudo-science. Critics believe that the institution owes a public explanation, as the IIM’s credibility and resources have been used in the past by the same discussion group.