In yet another setback to the leading national newspaper the Times of India (TOI), a college in Manipal has declined to allow them sponsorship of the prestigious college festivities. This comes after the campaign for The Hindu broke in India and there’s been a ton of discussion, most of it negatively directed at the Times of India (TOI).
In what could dampen the spirits of MIT students, its director has turned down a sponsorship offer by a leading national newspaper, the TOI for the upcoming college event Revels 2012. The reason provided is that the paper is full of sleazy and obscene content and the institute doesn’t officially encourage such things inside the campus.
“We appreciate the efforts of students to get sponsors for the cultural fest, but we can’t encourage sleaze inside the campus.They are advised to exercise discretion while approaching the sponsors,” said the spokesperson for the director’s office.
Understandably, students were outraged over the decision. “With this kind of retrograde policy, we can’t elevate our cultural fest to the next level,” said a student associated with management of revels 2012.
Our correspondent spoke to Revels 2012 sponsorship head Kamal Rashid Khan, who was visibly upset over the decision. He explained how the director rejected the offer. “We went to the director with a list of sponsors for approval, which we thought is just a formality. But to our surprise, she asked us about the brief background of the sponsors, which we provided, the last name being TOI. She asked her assistant to get a copy of TOI. Upon skimming through the paper, she was livid after seeing Poonam Pandey and Pamela Anderson dressed in skimpy outfits on the very first page. She struck off TOI from the list, reprimanded us and told MIT cannot officially associate itself with such tabloids.”
But he has a reason to cheer. He said, “Thank God that she didn’t open the TOI website. Otherwise, I’d have been suspended with so many articles available on TOI website encouraging PMS, extra-marital affairs etc…”
This is not the first time MIT is in news for such reasons. A few years ago, the then director of MIT, Mr. Yes Yes Tabla, also turned down the sponsorship offer of Kingfisher citing the brand’s association with alcohol.
P.S : All facts in this article are made up but you already knew that, didn’t you ?
