Ganda Hai... Par Dhanda Hai

The last few days you couldn't open any social media platform and not see an article, a video, a reel related to Galgotia’s University (GU) . Now those of my readers who were in Amazon rainforest or on Mount Everest or in North Korea last month and missed the story, here is what happened…

Recently at the India AI Impact Summit 2026, GU showcased a robot at their exhibition claiming that it was a locally developed innovation but was quickly identified by observers as a commercial Chinese-made Unitree Go2 robotic dog. A university representative later blamed miscommunication and misinterpretation for the confusion which sparked ridicule and criticism on social media and in the press.

And it was brutal. The amount of vitriol hurled towards GU reminded me of Rebecca Black and her song Friday Were the lyrics too childish? Maybe. Was there too much auto-tune? One could argue. Was the choreography awkward? Definitely. But ‘the worst song ever’? Surely not.

In the same fashion, the amount of flak GU received seemed way out of proportion for what they did. Actually, I would go further and even argue that they didn't do much wrong.

I know by now you are exasperated with me trying to justify every ‘wrong’ thing in the world. You may think I am The Devil's Advocate but in reality, I am more like a minor demon's paralegal. And as long as you are here, you might as well listen to my argument.

It's Just Business

Let's get the obvious out of the way… GU is running a business. Them saying they are ‘committed to excellence, innovation and impactful education globally’ may look good on brochures but their main goal is to increase revenue and profits… just like any other business. For that, they need a steady stream of students paying for their courses. But how to ensure that year after year? By offering courses that are much in demand. And there arises the first complication.

The job landscape has changed quite a bit in the last few years. Engineering and medical professions no longer guarantee steady income and stable careers. So, if a college wants to make money, it needs to offer courses in the fields with the highest job potential. Today that field happens to be Artificial Intelligence (AI) . And here arises the second complication.

To offer AI courses, colleges need top-notch infrastructure, latest technology and experienced faculty. That takes a lot of initial investment. Even after making that investment, if you are not a reputed college like IITs, you are unlikely to attract students of top caliber. It's only after your first few batches go out in the world and make a name for themselves, you will be able to attract top tier talent; both students and faculty. They will then do cutting edge research, publish papers, file patents and bring in more prestige and money for the college. Which, in turn, will attract more brilliant students. But all this will take a lot of time.

At this point, many people will say the same thing like they do in the infomercials… ‘There's gotta be a better way!’

The ‘Better’ Way

How about instead of actually investing in infrastructure, technology and faculty… you just repeatedly say that you did it? You make sleek advertisement videos, take up full page ads in the national newspapers, pay celebrities/influencers/politicians to promote your AI courses etc.

Is that wrong? This is India so the correct answer is ‘no, unless you get caught’. After all, global FMCG giants like Nestle and Pepsi sold substandard, even dangerous products in India for decades while selling safe variants of the same globally. GU would not be breaking any new ground here.

Will this attract brilliant students? Unlikely, since they will see through the hype. But here is the kicker… the number of gullible students exceeds the number of brilliant students by a very large margin. And fees paid by a brilliant student and a duffer are exactly the same. It will be a few years before the majority of the students will see your true colors. By that time, you would have made a pretty penny.

This sounds awesome. But then why does MIT, Oxford or ETH Zurich waste precious time and money in actually building their AI capabilities? It has something to do with the fairly strict enforcement of consumer protection laws in the US, UK and Europe. Any dubious claims by firangi universities lead to student lawsuits and hefty fines.

Demonstrably, that's not a problem in India. So GU took the easy way instead of hard. Totally understandable, I say.

Now let's look at what actually happened in the AI Summit

Scene of Crime

You cannot say you are offering high quality AI courses in your university and not participate in an AI summit happening 50 km away. So GU participation in the summit was a necessity. But there was this tiny problem of having nothing to showcase. Not to worry… there is a solution for that

Taking an existing product, making minor changes to it and then passing it off as your own is nothing new. Patent offices all over the world are filled with applications along the same lines. So GU showcasing a Chinese robot as their own invention was not exactly a capital crime.

So what did they do wrong?

Amateur Hour

First, whenever you need to declare something which is not the objective truth, either publicly or privately, it is wise to leave a little wiggle room. Instead of claiming ‘we have developed this robot locally’, saying something along the lines ‘This robot has indigenously developed AI capabilities’ would have been safer.

Second, the bigger the stage, the greater the scrutiny. Had this been a local event, GU could have ‘persuaded’ the local media not to air any unflattering coverage. This event had global participation and visibility. So keeping a low profile was the way to go. You can say anything while the cameras are off but be as boring and vague as possible the instant they switch on. Why do you think banks, insurance companies hide their most problematic clauses in dense, incomprehensible jargon in their Terms and Conditions?

Third, whenever you are lying, there is always a possibility of getting caught and sometimes you may get caught in a big way. At that time, you need to immediately back off, blame it on ‘a few misguided individuals’ and sacrifice a scapegoat to appease the masses.

GU messed up big time here. First, they doubled down on their claims. When that did not work, they claimed that they were misunderstood. When the organisers asked them to leave the Summit, they denied that being the case. And finally, when it was too late, they blamed one person from their team for overzealousness.

Tsk… If you must do wrong, do it right!

Anatomy Of The Outrage

Now let's look at the people who piled on GU. I am sure many of you were part of that mob. What got you so amped-up?

Some of you may claim that it's because GU lied. But that's like pot calling kettle black, isn't it? Because you lie too… all the time. If you ever gave a job interview, you had certainly lied. If you filled in your appraisal, your lies are in writing. You may claim your lies were small but then again, had you been a multi-crore business, your lies would have been proportionally bigger by necessity. So get off your high horses, please.

Some of you, who dislike the political party currently in power at centre, might have rejoiced because of GU's perceived sycophantic attitude towards that party. After all, this is the same University who published a scientific paper claiming ‘Corona virus is killed by sound vibrations produced by thali or ghanti’. That's some brown nosing.

The power of the Indian government has no meaningful guardrails to prevent its misuse. The government can break any individual or organisation for any real or perceived slight. So it's just common sense to maintain a good relationship with such a powerful entity. GU did exactly that.

And you don't have to go far to find out what happens when a University has an adversarial relationship with the central government. Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) is just 54 km away from GU. Protest, suffer and feel morally superior… or… kowtow, prosper and maybe experience moral degradation. Your call.

And others are angry because they feel that GU did not consider potential damage to the country's reputation because of their stunt. When most Indians spit on the street, litter in public spaces, repeatedly violate traffic laws … Do they think about their country's image? So can you blame GU decision makers for not considering India's reputation while making their claims in the AI Summit?

Many people look at the way GU operates and tell themselves that they would never do such things. I doubt that because they haven't run a multi crore business in India. We are not living in a timeline where ‘honesty is the best policy’. Many times lies, deceit and sycophancy is crucial for survival of business and is not just an easy way out. So it's difficult to find much fault with what GU did. Remember… In a den of thieves, it's the honest person who is the idiot.