ahmedabad political tremors in allahabad that witnessed the fall of murli manohar joshi former union minister for human resources development had a ripple effect in faraway ahmedabad when a wave of cheer and hope spread in indian institute of managementahmedabad iima campusdons now feel the clouds hovering over future of higher education and especially their institute are a thing of past the mood on the campus was upbeat right since morning as trends poured in indicating joshi trailing his rival samajwadi party candidate reoti raman singhmany of the dons remained glued to television sets interested as much in the happenings in allahabad as in the rest of the country to savour the fall of a man that many feel brought the iims and the ministry at loggerheads and had designs on the institutes autonomy and now it is not just a sigh of relief that they are heaving there is a distinct sense of happiness too and hopes of a rational approach by the congress in a democracy we should all respect the peoples verdict says iima director bakul dholakia apart from expecting the new government to continue with the reform process we also hope it ensures greater autonomy for national institutes of excellence such as iims and iits he adds we were getting geared up for the big fight with the ousted minister we wanted to show him his place but now that he has lost that will not happen however we now believe that higher education in india will not die and we can look forward to some rational policies we believe this is the right time to provide the necessary thrust for taking the institute into the international horizon says professor sebastian morris many also hope that the congress will keep its prepoll promise of taking a rational look at the fee cut issue in a meet held just before the elections pranab mukherjee had promised a reversal of the order if it came to power we hope it keeps its promise says professor samir barua chairman of the postgraduate programme pgp in iima it was manmohan singh who during his tenure as the finance minister had said that higher education should not be subsidised and institutes should move towards selfreliance we hope that the party will maintain its stand and continue with the policy adds baruastating that the dialogue process initiated by chairman of board of governors of iima nr narayanamurthy to thrash out a solution to the fee cut impasse may no longer be needed barua adds if it continues it will be held in a cordial atmosphere now there was no personal animosity with the minister however we hope that the new government will invite all the iims to join in the dialogue and take a decision on the merit of the subject says professor bh jajoo who is a part of the committee formed by narayanamurthy to talk to the mhrd