Cost cutting - II

While on austerity, the education minister was anxious to dispel the notion that the current agitation over salaries at the IITs had anything to do with austerity measures. “We haven’t followed austerity in their salaries”, he said, tongue firmly in cheek. As for the faculty going on a hunger strike to register their protest on the issue, he said, “I don’t have the privilege to go on strike myself. I can’t talk about what they should be doing and what they shouldn’t, since they’ll then say the ministry is interfering with their autonomy!”