BLOWING MY OWN TRUMPET : Sometimes, forgiveness can imply weakness

There are many quotations on forgiveness. The most popular one perhaps is from the Bible, where Jesus has said "Forgive them, for they know not what they do." Or Mahatma Gandhi's famous quote, "The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong." Or Alexander Pope who had said, "To err is human, to forgive, divine." Or the oft-repeated, "Forgive and forget."

However, sometimes your magnanimity to forgive is taken as your weakness and you are further trampled by the same person you had pardoned for his misdeeds. They say, if you give a long rope they will hang themselves. Meaning, if someone is doing wrong or behaving badly, sometimes it is best not to interfere or intervene, for eventually he will come a cropper. I experienced just the opposite _ my giving a long rope proved to be counterproductive for me and my not retaliating was seen as my weakness.

I always believe that every human being is an ordinary citizen, notwithstanding whatever powers he may exercise. I also believe that whenever you enter into any activity, confrontation is inevitable; in fact, it is an integral part of life. However, here is a story, which in my opinion, is tantamount to trying to fool the public by impersonating and claiming to be the original one.

This is the story of an institute called the Sai Balaji Society, which has three institutes under its belt _ International Institute of Management Studies (IIMS), International Institute of Management & Human Resources Development (IIMHRD) and Sai Balaji International Institute of Management(SBIIMS). Its Chairman and Founder is Prof. Manish R Mundada who was a former visiting faculty at my Sri Balaji Society and who later decided to create his own educational society, on the lines of my own. The name he gave to it - Sai Balaji Society- is quite similar to my educational society, Sri Balaji Society, which, I am happy to say, has created a credible reputation in the corporate world and is known for top quality management education.

In order to benefit from this ready made credibility and popularity of our brand, Mundada's Sai Balaji Society went around the country, riding on the credentials of my Sri Balaji Society, by portraying Sai Balaji Society as the original Sri Balaji Society. His objective was to lure innocent applicants who were aiming to seek admission to Sri Balaji Society. I came to know about this when complaints started coming to me but I ignored them. I felt that if the graduate student who is seeking admission is not careful about finding out about the institute, that he or she wants to get into, then I need not bother about the issue.

However, I could remain quiet no more when I started receiving calls from the companies, stating that they are being pestered by too many calls from us for recruitment and that I should stop it. One or two companies even called me up and fired me. I was quite surprised at this development. When we investigated into the matter, we found that Sai Balaji Society was indulging in impersonation. Yet, I decided not to take action. I believed he would rectify his own mistake and so decided to forgive his misdeeds. For, generally, I believe in the 'forgive and forget' policy and I am magnanimous to the furthest possible extent.

Then a day came when the business magazine, Business Baron, in its February 2014 issue, featured the Sai Balaji Educational Society. Astonishingly, the photograph of our auditorium packed with students and another one of our students posing in our campus were included as part of that story. When my students noticed it, they complained to me and requested action against that educational society. Even then, I decided to ignore, as any publicity is good publicity. However, the students argued that their identities were being compromised and they would like to be known as Sri Balaji Society students and not Sai Balaji Society students. Agreeing with their point, I sent a message to Prof. Mundada, stating that I would proceed against his educational society. He replied that he had not supplied the photographs; it was the mistake of the magazine. He also profusely apologised. So, I closed the matter there.

Recently, though, I came to know that his website,(http://iimspune.edu.in) was filled with photographs of our campus infrastructure as well as students, claiming to be that of Sai Balaji Education Society. Shockingly, it also had my video, addressing my students, put up on its homepage. It also contained photographs of groups of our students. I decided not to take it lying down, as I had given him a long enough rope and he seemed to be getting bolder and bolder.(Subsequently, he has, as a precaution, deleted the contents of the website. However, what he did not realise is that we have taken a backup).

My objection was two-fold: One, he was mischievously misguiding students and two, he was allegedly reaching out to the Industry, claiming his educational society as Sri Balaji Society.

I immediately released an advertisement nationally, declaring not to fall for Sai Balaji Society which is impersonating on our name. I also asked our Director(IT), Prof Biju Pillai to petition to the police. In the mean while, Mundada filed a counter complaint and sought anticipatory bail. His bail plea was rejected by the District Court but the Bombay High Court has granted him anticipatory bail. More than being angry, I feel sorry for him. I wonder why he should resort to such cheap gimmicks which may ultimately cost him dearly. It pains me to go through all these legal procedures but I was compelled to do so.

When the story was published in Business Baron, he said the magazine had committed the error of using photographs of Sri Balaji Society. Now, in his police complaint, he claims that it is the web designer's fault. This time, however, we are not giving him the benefit of the doubt. We have filed an FIR against him at the Hinjewadi Police Station and given subsequent statements to strengthen the case.

I am publishing below, the police statement which is self-explanatory

12th February, 2016Sri Balaji Society
Dr. (Col) A. Balasubramanian, President
Prof. Biju G. Pillai, Director - IT
To ,
The Hon'ble Police Inspector
Wakad Police Station
Wakad, Pune

Respected Sir,

  1. In continuation of the FIR filed on 5th Feb, 2016 (FIR NO 023059) against Sai Balaji Society _ by implication, all the trustees of the trust (if at all it is already registered under the Bombay Public Trust Act, 1950). We have also submitted supporting documents to substantiate our allegations against the said society/trust for a deliberate and fraudulent attempt to impersonate Sri Balaji Society and to lure, cheat and mislead the potential applicants for admission to the courses offered by them, thereby diverting the prospective students intending to join the courses offered by the Management Institutions of the Sri Balaji Society.
  2. Sai Balaji Society had deliberately committed the crime through various dubious means as already reported to you. While we are not in a position to submit a complete dossier on their various misleading activities/acts, which may be your subject matter for investigation, we have submitted a lot of evidence to prove as to how they used their website - sbiims.com - to mislead the public at large and by copying the properties of the website of Sri Balaji Society. These can be put in a nutshell, as under, and this is based on the website of Sai Balaji Society as on 6th February 2016 : -
    1. Showing the students of our management institutes as if they are from the Management institutes of Sai Balaji Society,
    2. Showing the infrastructure such as swimming pool, gymnasium, mess, hostel, auditorium, lawn, ppt hall, temple and so on... as if they belong to the Management Institutes and trust of Sai Balaji Educational Society which in fact are the infrastructure of our Sri Balaji Society.
    3. They have not even spared the Founder-President of the Sri Balaji Society _ they had published the entire video of Dr (Col) A. Balasubramanian which was telecast by Zee TV, in their website www.sbiims.com to make it appear as if he (Dr (Col) A. Balasubramanian) is from the Sai Balaji Education Society.
    4. They have published the video of three classes (Group video of 2013 _ 2015 batch), along with the Directors and senior faculty, in their website to mislead and cheat the public, that is, the students, the professors, the classes, shown as if they belong to the Sai Balaji Educational Society.
    5. Sri Balaji Society has appointed a doctor who is on regular visit to look after the medical needs of our students. They have not excluded the doctor as well.
  3. In short, all the above stated facts manifestly and deliberately committed acts with ulterior motive to practice deceptive means to mislead the public and gain unfair undue advantage by the unauthorised use of Sri Balaji Society's name and goodwill thereby constituting to the offence of passing off.
  4. After filing the FIR with you on 5th Feb, 2016 we had also included a caution notice in our National advertisement, cautioning the public about the impersonation with fraudulent intention being resorted to by Sai Balaji Educational Society. A copy of the same is attached as Annexure _ I.
  5. In response to this, Sai Balaji Society has published an advertisement on 11 Feb 2016. I am enclosing a copy of the advertisement released by Sai Balaji Group of Institutes Survey No 54, Nere Dattawadi, Near Hinjewadi IT Park, Pune Tel -020-22919500/555/510 along with this complaint as Annexure - II. I draw your kind attention to the contents published under the 'caution notice portion of the advertisement' where they have said that Sri Balaji Society is trying to make 'false and defamatory' claims. But we wish to state in this regard that Sri Balaji Society in its own interest has issued a caution notice to the public against misleading advertisement of Sai Balaji Society using the name of Sri Balaji Society.
  6. I have also received an email dated 10th February 2016 at 10:16 P.M. from Manish R. Mundada which is an attempt to proclaim innocence on the part of Mr. Manish R. Mundada and also he has put the blame on those who hosted the website. On an earlier occasion too, when the photographs of the auditorium and students of Sri Balaji Society were published with a write up in the Business Baron magazine, February 2014 issue, Mr. Manish R. Mundada has disowned responsibility and blamed the publishers for the mistake that occurred. Therefore even the publishers stand as accomplice in the crime. The copies of the said e-mail and magazine are hereby attached in Annexure III & IV respectively.
  7. All the above mentioned photographs are published in our handbook 2013-15 and prospectus 2016-17.A copy of the same is furnished here with for perusal and to initiate appropriate action as Annexure V & VI respectively.
Yours Sincerely, Prof. Biju G. Pillai
Director IT

The FIR states that he has, without seeking prior permission of the appellant, stored, uploaded and published photographs and video of the students, infrastructure, and classes of the appellant's educational society on their website as that of their own educational institute (www.sbiims.com), with an intent to gain admissions, thus deceiving the educational institute of the appellant. Therefore, the offences were registered. Prof. Mundada has been booked under:

  • IPC Sec 419, 420
  • Cyber Law Sec 66 (E), 43 (B), 27
  • IPC Sec 66
  • IPC Sec 419 - Punishment for cheating by impersonation
  • IPC Sec 420 - Cheating and dishonesty including delivery of property
  • Cyber Law Sec 66(E) - Capturing, publishing, or transmitting the image of a private area without any person's consent or knowledge
  • Cyber Law Sec 43(B) - [Penalty and compensation] for damage to computer, computer system, etc - if any person without permission of the owner or any other person who is in charge of a computer, computer system or computer network downloads, copies or extracts any data, computer data base or information from such computer, computer system or computer network including information or data held or stored in any removable storage medium
  • Cyber Law Sec 27 - Offences by Companies
  • IPC Sec 66 _ Description of imprisonment for non-payment of fine. I reiterate that I continue to believe in the philosophy of 'To err is human, to forgive, divine.' I sincerely and categorically state that Sai Balaji Society should exist, grow and flourish but not by fraudulent ways. I am the last person to be vengeful against anyone, not even an enemy. It is said that 'Imitation is the best form of flattery', but alas, this case is an alleged attempt of deliberate impersonation and not innocent imitation.

By DR (COL.) A. BALASUBRAMANIAN
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

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