In the United States, bloggers can, pretty much, write freely. In some parts of the world, blogging can cost you your job, your freedom, or even your life. That’s what’s happening to Gaurav Sabnis. And while I am late to this issue, I’m writing about it now because it deserves much wider attention.
Writing on his personal blog, Gaurav Sabnis, of Mumbai, India, who was employed by IBM, linked from his blog (not a corporate blog) to an article that criticized The Indian Institute of Planning and Management, (II PM) an engineering school, and set off a firestorm. He didn’t write the article. He linked to it. He added some comments that might have been kinda rude, but they didn’t seem actionable. He got a cease and desist letter, demanding that he take his post down, and like many a blogger, laughed and posted it on his site.
The Issue Gets Deadly Serious
Then it got serious, noted India Uncut, IIPM happens to be a client of IBM, Gaurav’s employer, and purchased a huge bunch of laptops from them. (In fact, IIPM is a company with serious money clout, and one of the biggest advertisers in India.) Students at IIPM threatened to burn their Think Pads in front of IBM’s offices to protest Guarav’s blog posts. Yeah, that’s right, burn them.
That, Guarav felt, left him two choices: delete his posts and apologize, or resign from IBM. He resigned. What would you do?
I’m with Glenn Reynolds, who was surprised that IBM accepted his resignation. I would have expected them to stand up for freedom of speech and for their employee. But that’s not how it happened.
Guarav Falls on His Sword
As IBM blogger Sher Taton pointed out, “I’m not sure what to make of it other than to say it looks like he really fell on his sword.”
Guarav wrote: “You know, we bloggers are always writing about principles, about freedom of speech, about standing up for what we believe in, for the truth. It’s very easy to write all that. But here I’m being tested on those principles in real life. If I don’t stand by those principles now, I will lose all respect for myself.”
Technorati clocks 894 posts on the topic. It’s been blogged about on Instapundit and round the world. But it hasn’t become a mainstream issue. And that’s a damn shame. Because Guarav is every blogger who believes in freedom and telling the truth. And who is willing to stand along because of his beliefs. He’s going to stand trial, and he’s going to have legal fees to pay. I’m sure he’ll land a job very soon and I hope his new employer believes in freedom of speech and puts it first before the almighty dollar.
Read more: Global Voices, Chocolate and Gold Coins
IBM Employee Resigns In Midst of Freedom of Speech Brou Ha Ha
BL Ochman | October 18, 2005 | Permanent Link | Comments (10) | TrackBack (
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Hi. Thanks for this post.
I really think this unidentified and very articulate IBMer captured a really great point in a post Instapundit at http://instapundit.com/archives/026116.php and I might point out that is exactly the kind of person that IBM Does seek out and Does try to keep.
“In fact Gaurav decided to resign because out of appreciation and a sense of loyalty to IBM. He wrote, “The second thing dear to me is IBM’s well-being. IBM has been a good employer to me. I have no complaints about them. Even in light of these events, they did not pressurise me to go against my principles and hush the matter up. Yet, IBM was being dragged into this unnecessarily. It was being made a target of bizarre pressure tactics. If even one Thinkpad laptop was actually burnt, it would cause a lot of bad press and nuisance for IBM. So I did not want IBM’s well-being to be compromised in any way.”
To me that is the big story, that any corporation can still inspire such loyalty in it’s employees that they’d rather leave the company than see it get hurt is, these days, nothing short of wondrous. That there are still people like Gaurav Sabnis who stick to their principles, even when it means making the tough decisions, is marvelous. I’m sorry I never got a chance to meet the man, or work with him, as he’s exactly the kind of person we need to keep.”
Sher: I think he will land well for just the reasons you’ve noted. It is not every day, sadly, that we meet someone who’ll stand by his or her principles. IMO, Guarav will be IBM loss.
Hi,
I appreciate your views Sir. I work with the Hindustan Times group in India and just wanted to give a few clarifications as your blog contains misrepresentations.
1. IIPM is a management school and not an engineering institute.
2. The Indian media hasn’t picked up the issue because most of the Indian media research issues before publicising the same. Our newspaper, including various other media houses, are not tabloids and do not unnecessarily publish false statement. Though Jammag claimed many students of IIPM had complained, Jammag could not provide details or antecedants of even one student to back their claim. Even their article does not give any names of their sources. Further, our physical visits to IIPM campuses were quite surprisingly supported by IIPM and I have to mention that almost all of Jammag’s comments were ‘tabloidish’. You can of course visit their web site and find the same to be true.
3. Mr. Gaurav Sabnis did not resign on his own but was thrown out by IBM. In India, it is quite ordinary to throw out people by asking them to resign. It allows them a chance to get a second job. Is IIPM to blame for this issue? IIPM showed us official communication where they have clearly never mentioned the same. However, IBM refuses to comment till date; further convincing us that it is IBM that should be taken to task and not IIPM.
Perhaps you would now understand that the Indian media does not care about being accused of not picking up unsubstantiated issues.
4. It should be quite clear to the world that the Indian media does not get influenced by the advertising power of individual clients. If you are accusing the Indian media of the same, it is quite a hollow accusation that should be taken back. I find it contemptuous and without backing.
Irrespective of all that I have written, it is quite obvious that the Indian media has taken an intelligent and democratic step this time, and not one influenced by money, as accused by you.
Regards,
K
I’m not familiar enough with India’s laws to know this, but maybe one of your readers will: does India have some form of protected “freedom of speech” in its laws? If so, then IBM should have done more. If not, then IBM sort of has to play by India’s rules in India, doesn’t it? Americans tend to drag the Constitution around with us when we travel and expect it to hold up in other countries. Maybe India doesn’t see it that way?
Joel: You are right, laws are different in other parts of the world. In some places, bloggers have been jailed and even tortured just for blogging. So it would be interesting to know more about India’s free speech and free press laws and attitudes.
Looks like India does have a Constitutionally guaranteed provision for freedom of speech:
http://www.llrx.com/features/indian.htm
snip: “Fundamental Rights and Duties
The Constitution prescribes certain fundamental rights such as equality before the law (which includes protection from arbitrary action of the State), freedom from discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth, equality of opportunity in matters of public employment, freedom of speech and expression, right to assembly peacefully without arms, to form association or unions, to move freely through India, to reside and settle in any part of India, protection against deprivation of life and personal liberty, freedom of conscience and the profession, practice and propagation of religion. Neither the Union nor the State legislative, executive or judiciary can act in violation of these fundamental rights. The right to property ceased to be a fundamental right from 1979 onwards but the Constitution provides that no person shall be deprived of his property save by authority of law.”
Then there is the question of how well those rights are protected and respected.
If done with an honest intention of upholding freedom of speech then I guess its been an exemplary act of courage, but one cant stop being a doubting thomas in this instance.especially when one comsiders the amount of drama this whole episode has turned out to be .
Being a recent pass-out from a prominent B-School in delhi, i fully support the questions that gaurav has raised on the eligibility of IIPM in making its claims.
Especially after meeting quite a few graduates of that Institute all i could note was that it is not worse off or for that matter better than most other tier-2 institutes in India.
But there is clearly a strong education ‘Mafia’ present in India which is clearly there to take advantage of the economic boom in India by adopting the Henry Ford methods of churning out graduates to feed the insatiable demands of the BPO’s and other ‘Volume’ White collared sweat shops.
Guess im gettin too melodramatic about this subject at the wrong place ;-)
But clearly the debate that gaurav had kicked up here is valid , especially in the light of the emergecnce of an entire generation of ‘IIPM”s in India .