PMO wants to maintain tightest possible control: Congress on IIM (Amendment) Bill 2023

The Congress on Saturday slammed the BJP-led central government saying that the Indian Institute of Managements (IIM) were given greater autonomy in 2017 but the government is undoing what it itself had introduced.

The Congress also said that the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) wants to maintain tightest possible control.

Congress General Secretary Communication Incharge Jairam Ramesh said: "IIMs were given greater autonomy in 2017 and the legislation had wide support in Parliament. But six years later the Modi government is undoing what it itself had introduced. Clearly, autonomy is unwelcome for this government."

"The PMO now wants to maintain the tightest possible control and ensure ideological 'purity' setting aside all considerations of quality, freedom of thought and flexibility of administration of programmes," the Rajya Sabha MP said.

His remarks came a day after Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Friday introduced the IIM (Amendment) Bill, 2023, in Lok Sabha.

The bill, if passed, will give power to the President to appoint not only the chairperson of the Board of Governors (BoG) of each IIM, but also appoint as well as remove the director of these institutes.

The move is being seen as an attempt to dilute the autonomy of the IIM, country’s premier business schools.