Scam with Director of IIT(D) : This was one more news story from the dirty tricks department of The Times of India and this time also it boomeranged on them. The paper which has fallen into an abyss of decline, keeps targeting Modi Sarkar, day in and day out, for reasons that everyone knows. In a story datelined 28th December 2014, and written by Akshaya Mukul, TOI reported IIT Delhi director Raghunath K Shevgaonkar has quit more than two years before the end of his term. The newspaper quoted a senior IIT official having confirmed it though human resource development ministry officials claimed they were unaware of it. TOI naturally added masala and reported that Shevgaonkar has been under tremendous pressure from the HRD ministry (read that as Smriti Zubin Irani) to reportedly pay nearly Rs 70 lakh to former IIT D faculty and now BJP leader Subramanian Swamy as his salary dues between 1972 and 1991. The newspaper alleged that the IIT director was opposed to paying the money. Dr Swamy had taken IITD to Delhi High court for illegal termination in the early 70s by the then Congress government and had demanded his back pay with 18% interest. The court agreed with Dr Swamy and asked the IIT Board to pay up. As Dr Swamy had told Times Now today, the case involving his dismissal from IITD was between the board of IITD and him and the Director had nothing to do with it. But that was not everything. TOI even dragged Sachin Tendulkar into the resignation affair, by alleging that the cricketer had demanded land in IITD for setting up a cricket academy. In a tweet, which has since gone viral, Sachin denied any such request for land and wanted to know why Times of India did not contact him for his side of the story before publishing it. Now, the online edition of Times of India has pulled out the story involving Sachin but retained the rest of the report, with allegations of HRD ministry trying to influence the case involving Dr Swamy. But the truth was far from all these. IITD Director Mr Shevgaonkar had allowed Baichung Bhutia to set up an academy in the campus, bypassing all the rules. When questioned about this, he refused to answer the allegations. But this was small stuff. There was more to come. Mr Shevgaonkar who was an appointee of Kapil Sibal, set up an International Institute of Technology in Mauritius without permission from the government. Interestingly, the project was cleared during the tenure of by Deepender Hooda, son of the then Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda who horror of horror was an IIT Council member. Obviously, this was a project where there was money to be made through the back door using the IIT brandname and a cushy post retirement for the IITD. Smells of another scam? So, when the IITD Director was caught with his pants down, he tried to cry wolf. Instead of asking for an enquiry into his acts of impropriety, he called TOI editor and told them that he had ‘hot news’ against Modi Sarkar. Naturally, the TOI editorial team was excited and did not bother to check the so called ‘controversial’ news and went to town with it. Now that their bluff has been called, the IITD director and TOI Editor are running around like headless chickens. Watch this space for more. - S. Kochattil
Posted on: Sun, 28 Dec 2014 13:28:03 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015