Why can't the media get its facts right?

Today's Indian Express carries an interview with outgoing IIMA director Bakul Dholakia. The report carries the following item in a box:

No three-month extension for Bakul

IIM-A directors have always been given three-month extension after the expiry of their term. This was done to facilitate the handing over of the charge process to the next director, as the selection process for the same is a time-taking affair. For Prof Bakul Dholakia, however, October 9 is the last day of his term as also his last day in office. Sources in IIM-A said the chairman of the governing body of IIM-A, DrVijaypat Singhaniya, had written to Union HRD Ministry seeking an extension of Bakul's term until the next director is appointed.

It has been learnt that an "explicit" communiqué has been issued to Dholakia to hand over the charges on the last day of his term

The report is factually incorrect. In 2002, the then outgoing director too was asked to hand over charge the day his term expired. If the suggestion is that Prof Dholakia is being single out for special treatment by the MHRD, that is completely erroneous.

In previous rounds, yes, there were occasions when the director's term had got extended until the appointment of his successor but not all the time.

Leaving aside the historical record for the moment, isn't it a good idea to have fixed terms for such positions? Is it not a healthy practice for the director to step down when his term expires and for somebody else to hold temporary charge till the new director takes over? IIMA and its governing council should have instituted this practice on their own in the interests of good governance- that is the least one expects of the nation's top business school, many of whose faculty have made careers out of preaching governance to the rest of the world.

If they failed to do so and if the MHRD has now instituted an altogether healthy practice- of adhering strictly to the a director's term limit- then the ministry surely deserves bouquets, not brickbats.