New Delhi:
Arindam Chaudhuri, entrepreneur and owner of a chain of private business schools, says he is comfortable with serving as the centre of a new debate on free speech.
"This country has laws and you cannot go and defame someone on online media. I am going to contest anything that is defamatory," said Mr Chaudhuri.
Mr Chaudhuri's lawsuit has resulted in the blocking of more than 70 URLs or Web pages which hosted content that was allegedly defamatory about either the 41-year-old self-styled management guru, or his Indian Institute of Planning and Management, which has 18 branches in all major cities like Delhi, Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad.
The government says it had no choice - the order to block the sites came from a Gwalior court. Major newspapers and magazines are among those whose Web pages cannot be accessed.
Among those affected is a page of the higher education regulator, the University Grants Commission, which in July last year said on its site that IIPM is not recognised as a university and is not authorised to award degrees, information that many would consider essential and beneficial for thousands of students.
The government said yesterday that it would "unblock" the UGC site - junior IT minister Milind Deora said this would be done in coordination with the office of junior Education Minister Shashi Tharoor. Today, the UGC has posted the information again on its site.
Mr Chaudhuri said yesterday that this would be contempt of court. "They (UGC) declared us a fake university... a completely false and shameful allegation," the pony-tailed Mr Chaudhuri said on NDTV last night. He said the court order won by IIPM included the contentious page on the UGC website.
Complaints against the IIPM have revolved mainly around the fact that advertisements about the institute have not made it clear that it is not recognised or that it cannot confer MBA and other degrees. Mr Chaudhuri says this criticism is defamatory.