Golgappa University and the Chinese kutta

 

The biggest contribution of India AI Impact Summit 2026 has been to the English language. “Galgotian blunder,” just like Himalayan blunder, but bigger. “Galgotian presentation, Galgotian exaggeration.” “Galgotiafication of media, education, etc..” “Galgotia kutta.” “Chinese kutta with Indian Aadhaar card.” “Are you studying at a University or at Galgotia?” “Are you normal or Galgotian?” “From make in India to pack in India.” “Galgotias syndrome.” “Galgotiyapa.” “Galgoat.” “Golgappa university.” 

When India lost to South Africa in the t20 super 8, someone said, “Looks like, Gautam Gambhir did his Cricket coaching course at Galgaotias.”

Time was when Galgotia was a revered name. It was a regular must-visit for all of us students in Delhi. It was a bookstore (E.D. Galgotia & Sons, set up in 1933) in Connaught Place in Delhi and had possibly the largest and most extensive collection of books in the country. The bookshop resembled more of a large library. Then reading methods changed, Galgotias closed shop and reinvented themselves, first as Publishers and then as a University. 

Now it has come to this. It didn’t happen overnight. It took years of assiduous efforts to achieve the “Galgotian” fiasco. Right from the beginning, the founders were vocal about their alignment with a particular dispensation. In 2014, the current Prime Minister (then Chief Minister, Gujarat) attended DQ CyberMedia ICT Awards function at Delhi and handed over the award for Galgotias being the top Indian university for excellence in academics and global linkages (whatever that means) to Mr. Suneel Galgotia, Chancellor, Galgotias University. In 2015, Galgotias University was awarded for Excellence in Academics by then Union Home Minister Shri Rajnath Singh at the National Make in India Conclave. Galgotias’ convocations and other events are regularly graced by various ministers of the present dispensation both at the Centre and the state (Uttar Pradesh) and Sambit Patra.

In 2020, there was a paper from the same university, “Corona Virus Killed by Sound Vibrations Produced by Thali or Ghanti: A Potential Hypothesis” (Journal of Molecular Pharmaceuticals and Regulatory Affairs). The same has now been retracted, most probably after the Chinese kutta controversy.

Going by all their full-page ads all over the place, I presumed it must have taken off as a posh, expensive university. It was expensive all right but my first inkling of not-everything-kosher came during the 2024 Parliamentary elections. While there were assertions of “aapke bhains chura lenge,” “aapke tonti nikal lenge,” “aapke magalsutra chhin lenge” aur kya kya in political speeches, there was a demonstration by some students in front of the Congress offices against the Congress manifesto and the wealth redistribution and inheritance tax it espoused. They were carrying placards with “Down with Urban Naxals,” “No Inheritance Tax,” and so on. Some reporters asked them about these things. Turned out, they didn’t have the slightest clue as to what was an Urban Naxal, what was inheritance tax or what wealth redistribution meant. The only question which elicited a clear answer was which institution they were from and it was the same Galgotias University. Here’s a video on this: 

youtube.com/watch?si=-v599egJJ3ZzpfOX&v=0vd4rMruHeE&feature=youtu.be

Galgotias highlights the fact that between 2017 and 2024, it filed for 2,430 patents. (Compare this to the most research-intensive IIT, the one in Madras filing for 2,550 patents since 1975!) What Galgotias doesn’t say is, it has managed to receive exactly zero patent rights.   

For the AI enclave, Galgotias bagged a booth bigger than what 4 IITs combined got. Doordarshan ignored the other stalls and laser-focused on the Galgotias stall highlighting its robot, its 3-D printer and so on. The Minister of Electronics and IT tweeted a picture of the robo dog. Then, in that Doordarshan PR package thinly disguised as news, appeared Prof. Neha Singh who proudly showed the robo-dog called Orion as “developed” by a Galgotias centre. When it turned out that it was actually a Chinese product called Unitree Go2 readily available in the market for Rs. 3 lacs or so, she doubled down, saying, “Your 6 can be my 9.” All that carefully choreographed event of wowing the world even at the cost of complete chaos for actual participants and visitors and forcibly grabbing the hand of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to his acute awkwardness got overshadowed by the Chinese kutta. The Minister hastily deleted his tweet. Then Galgotias were asked to remove themselves. Looks like, they resisted so the power supply to their stall had to be cut off. In their ignominious departure, they left behind a thermocol aeroplane which also became fodder for further memes with reporters demonstrating how it can be deployed to obliterate Pakistan from the face of the earth.

 

It has been widely apprehended that AI will take away human jobs. Well, it seems to have taken away at least one. Neha Singh’s LinkedIn profile now reads:

IMHO, the problem is not with Galgotias or Neha Singh. The actual problem is AI, i.e., the Artificial Image-making that has been normalised over the last decade or so. All these choreographed events, obsession with curated imaging, emasculation of the media to the point of converting them into PR agencies, outrageously exaggerated claims of achievements when there is none, replacement of any inconvenient data by complete fictions, words like Vishwaguru and so on. The hollowness of all these is now breaking surface. 

I think, any media report should now carry the statutory declaration, “No Galgotians were harmed during the process.” Galgotia, yeh tune kya kiya?!