In previous articles, I have reported on the antics of the folks who call themselves the "Forum of Indian Leftists" - or, more recently, "Forum of Inquilabi Losers" per their Comrade Ra() Ravishankar, who changed "Indian" to "Inquilabi" to hide his shame over his Indian origin. And of FOIL's various mutations, such as "FOSA" - the "Friends of South Asia" where "South Asia" stands for "Taliban Slum of Pakistan". Or "ICA" or "NRI-SAHI" or "Promise of India". Or "SINGH Foundation".  Or "IMC"...

I have described them as losers, and the gentle reader might look with disapproval on my harsh language. Understandable. Should one describe a bunch of people as "losers" just because they are? Isn't this like kicking a rabid dog, instead of gently gathering it up and making it comfortable?

But please read this, and decide for yourself. 

The Massachussetts Institute of Technology has announced the appointment of Professor Subra Suresh, who currently holds the Ford Chair of Engineering in the
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, as their Dean of Engineering. Given MIT's reputation for leadership in Engineering, fellow Indian-Americans have every reason to be proud.

Professor Suresh is an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology in Chennai (then known as Madras). The IITs in the 1970s selected students strictly on merit - through a competitive nationwide examination that challenged problem-solving ability and innovative thinking. Obviously they selected well. IIT graduates have made an impact on the world, and on India, far, far out of proportion to their very small numbers. All the IITs together graduated roughly 1000 Bachelor's level graduates per year - and they have been in operation only since the 1950s. Yet they are found in the best engineering schools in America, Europe and Australian, and in the best engineering companies. They were in the vanguard of the Silicon Valley, Texas and Massachussetts electronics revolution, and then the internet wave, and then in the blast-off of the Indian economy and Indian industry.

Not all the graduates of the IITs went abroad - not by a long shot. The majority stayed in India - and  can be found among the very best of Indian technologists and businesspeople. The Indian defence industry, the atomic industry, the power industry, the steel and chemicals industries, and of course the computer industry - all drew massive contributions from IIT graduates.

So Prof. Suresh symbolizes the excellence of his generation, and everything he has won has come through incredibly hard work and even harder thinking and initiative. Being appointed Dean is an honor, but more than that, it is a massive task - MIT expects him to lead fundraising and strategic directions that will decide the institution's strengths in engineering for at least the next decade.  Congratulations, and all the best, to Prof. Suresh. This recognition comes, not as a surprise, but as the result of an awesome career of accomplisments.

... But now for FOIL's reaction. Amazingly, Mr. Kaleem Kwaja, graduate of the IIT Kharagpur, who cursed India and the IITs in his "gratitude", still found it somewhere in him to actually show some pride in Prof. Suresh's accomplishments.  He wrote:

"On 6/16/07, kaleem Kawaja <kawaja@worldnet.att.net> wrote:
Dear Friends,

Horray for the IITians, their mentoring when at IIT, and their can-do spirit.  And ofcourse the long culture of learning that is inherent in India.

Kaleem Kawaja
IIT Kharagpur Alumni"

(Of course, unless Mr. Kawaja is living up to his usual practice of describing himself in the royal plural, the proper term should have been "IIT Kharagpur Alumnus", but this is not the time to make a big deal of that.)
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Now comes the FOIL reaction - from "RAJA SWAMY", whose own accomplishments have been previously discussed in this BLOG.

"
Dear Kaleem,
Are we supposed to be excited because he is Indian? Why? Also, what is this supposed "can do spirit" of IITians? If anything it was only the deliberate policy of state funding for the IITs that made that institution's graduates highly qualified engineers, nothing much else. As for the "long culture of learning" supposedly inherent in India, lets not forget that the vast majority of IITians are members of the privileged upper castes. Mr. Suresh, now Dean of MIT is only another Indian who having benefited from state funded education has secured his future in an institution that is deeply tied to big corporations leading privatization and liberalization. As for his comment about science and engineering being some sort of "cultural" Indian thing, it would have been more accurate (and honest) if he praised the Indian state's decision to generously fund (at the expense of elementary education for hundreds of millions of poor Indians), those "temples of learning" known as the IITs.
raja.."

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I rest my case.  Meanwhile, I see that Angana Chatterjee continues to describe herself as a "Professor", despite never having earned that rank at any institution, not even one as low-class as the Communists Institute of Inquilabi Studies in San Francisco.

What next? Raja Swamy describes himself as Dean?