IIPM (I'd never heard of them before, they have fraud written all over them) apparently is suing some bloggers from India for defamation. This is because of some cross checking the bloggers did about the claims IIPM had made in their advertisements.
The problem is, IIPM has hired stealth PR who is hunting down the individual bloggers by writing to their employers, setting up Pro-IIPM blogs, and flooding the Indian blogspace with anonymous comments defending IIPM. This has resulted is use of vulgar language, personal threats, and even loss of job for one engineer, Gaurav Sabnis.
Lenovo, the company that bought the IBM PC business, traditional print media (who had enjoyed IIPM's advertising patronage), faculty from top Indian business schools, India's constitution (which guarantees both free speech and right to own property) and hundreds of Indian bloggers are all convolutedly involved. DesiPundit has full coverage.
I left India fifteen years ago, at that time writers who exposed shady deals or projected a negative image were punished by the powerful without a second thought. Communists tore my father's book and threatened to burn the publishing house because he wrote about their violent activities in West Bengal. Fans of a cinema actor Raj Kumar once beat up a press reporter because he wrote a bad review.
So bashing up reporters is not new to India. What's new is the support group that has come alive for fellow reporters and writers.
