March 10: The IIM fee standoff has snowballed into a full-fledged confrontation, plunging a weathervane meeting in Ahmedabad into chaos.

A meeting of the society of IIM Ahmedabad yesterday saw heated exchanges between members and government representatives and had to be called off as there was no consensus.

The Calcutta and Bangalore IIMs, the boards of which are meeting on March 27, were awaiting the outcome of the society session to give finishing touches to their strategy.

Prafull Anubhai, a society member, said explicit threats and unwarranted remarks were made by government representatives V.S. Pandey, a joint secretary in the human resource development ministry, and V. Piparsania, a financial adviser to the department.

The ministry had proposed a steep cut in the annual fee charged by the IIMs which feel that the real objective is to weaken the institutes and make them dependent on the government.

Anubhai said the meeting was adjourned as the atmosphere was “not conducive” to talks. “The meeting will be convened again at a later date.”

“The board of governors is meeting on April 3 and so we must have the society meeting before that. We think April 2 is a possibility,” an official said.

A source said the frost set in at the meeting when some society members mooted legal steps against the fee-slash order.

The government officials then said they were carrying dismissal letters of the members of the society and the board and the director as well as the chairman.

One of the government emissaries said a legal challenge would amount to confrontation with the Centre. “The government can supersede and dismiss the society,’’ he warned.

The government representatives also indicated that “action could be initiated against the director for not keeping the board and the society informed about the government’s thinking on the fee issue”.

Pandey and his colleagues then took the institute’s director, Bakul Dholakia, out for a chat. Dholakia was reportedly asked to accept the directive. The meeting was later adjourned.

Autonomy plea

An application was moved in the Supreme Court today seeking incorporation of the Centre’s undertaking that there would not be any government interference in the autonomy of the IIMs in a court order on fee reduction.