Manda's manda exposed

Tobacco giant’s hand in Mitr activities exposed

 

The student community in ITM was in for a rude shock on Friday after the contents of an email sent to DoS and GCU head went public and viral on the internet. The letter sent by ‘Very Concerned ITM student’ has raised several tough questions and has put the administration in a fix. The controversial letter has been reproduced here for our readers.
 

Dear Authorities,
 

Before you come to any conclusions and delete this mail, I would like to say that “I am proud to be an ITMian”. I love my future alma mater and this is why I bring up this burning issue to your notice. Recently, the activities of Mitr (erstwhile GCU) have raised several eyebrows. They suddenly have more presence in the institute. “But their true intentions are not clear,” said a 1th year MA student taking in two lungfuls of smoke from her lighted cigarette. Several posters depicting cigarettes and catchy captions such as “Smokers make bad swimmers” have lead to an observable increase in the number of smokers in the institute. One in fact suggests that people should smoke all through the day. Several chain smokers who had managed to go cold turkey are said to have been lured back into the habit by these ubiquitous posters.
 

After investigating further over the past two weeks (during the 4-6 power cut – Yes, that is why they want us to play Wolf), we managed to get to the bottom of the mystery. ‘Something’ is fundamentally wrong with Mitr’s core group. One of the most influential members has been communicating regularly with a leading tobacco corporation sending them regular updates on sales figures and other statistics. On further digging, we found that he spent his last summer working for them and has a PPO from them. After sneaking into Mitr, successfully withholding these incriminating pieces of evidence, he has allegedly expanded empire by bringing in other likeminded individuals into the team in the form of co-ordinators. They have performed detailed studies on the average student’s psyche in coming up with their under-cover ad campaign. Understanding that ITMians often have suicidal impulses, they projected cigarettes as the safer, neater and more innovative way forward for the student community.

 
We feel ashamed that such things are being allowed at our institute. (Sorry, couldn’t avoid saying that) We demand that the posters be removed immediately and that something has to be done to curb the flow of cash from industry into hands of the student don. The institute is being colonized as market for their products.
 

Saddened,
Very concerned ITM student

The authorities are yet to give any official word on the same. The news from inside quarters is that a long mail is being prepared in response to the above letter, covering events from 2nd century AD to present day related to Industry-Academia collaborations. Meanwhile a gagging order has been issued by the Mitr don and even their volunteers were unwilling to speak to us.