Highlighting the role of alumni in “management institutes and particularly the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA)”, an alumnus of the 1981 batch has approached the four-member high-powered external committee which is conducting the probe. Earlier this year, student Akshit Bhukya committed suicide demanding that the voices of past students be heard.
In his mail, S. Viswanathan, who is the former president of the Bangalore chapter of the IIMA Alumni Association to which he has been serving as an advisor, has completely left the alumni out of the loop from the entire chain of events after September 26. The day of Bhukya’s death, as well A four-member committee was formed.
“In the interests of transparency, fairness, inclusiveness and respect for the alumni voice, such communication to alumni would be appropriate,” the alumnus said in a letter to committee members.
PGP student Bhukya was also the convenor of The Red Bricks Summit (TRBS) – a management symposium that was canceled after his death.
Notably, Viswanathan is a batchmate of Nayan Parikh, Managing Director of Nayan Parikh & Consultants, who is in the four-member committee.
The letter follows a recent move by the committee to reach out to faculty members via email, telling them they can email the panel if they have any suggestions or ideas. Besides investigating Bhukya’s death, the committee is also reviewing the nature of the practice of organizing student-led events and the involvement of faculty and institute leadership.
“The recent incident has been discussed among alumni for some time and how the institute has not kept them in the loop like many other recent major decisions,” Viswanathan told The Indian Express.
The alumni also asked the members to look into “serious administrative lapses” including hiding all information about the alleged suicide from alumni, saying it was a case of lack of transparency.
The alumnus said the committee is expected to “examine all aspects” and “make appropriate recommendations, which when implemented can help elevate our institute to higher standards” and “unlike the Kiran Karnik review, may take advantage of the opportunity to do so. The committee, which unfortunately just is missing’.
The Independent Expert Group (IEG) report on the review of IIMA 2023, chaired by former NASSCOM president Karnik, criticized the institute for changing its logo and demolishing hostels without consulting alumni and suggested increasing strategic focus and alumni engagement.
Apart from Parikh, the committee formed to probe Bhukya’s death includes Deep Kalra, founder and chairman of MakeMyTrip; Ramesh Mangaleswaran, Senior Partner Emeritus at McKinsey & Company; and Alka Bharucha, co-founding partner of Bharucha & Partners.
The committee was formed following the demand of a group of students and 17 senior professors to form an external committee to investigate the circumstances of the student’s death.
The four-member committee held separate meetings with these faculty members and members of the Student Affairs Council (SAC) on campus last month.