Wharton website greets you with following statements – Knowledge for Global Impact, Life, Innovation,Success, and Action.
Knowledge you must seek and learn from diversified sources – even from people whom you principally disagree with. A point of View is a point of View, and it must be heard.
WIEF is in its 17th year and surely knows the kind of audience it caters to. It was not a first time they were shortlisting list of keynote speakers and hence could not had assessed its impact on its image or audience reaction. To Invite Narendra Modi and then regret and withdraw is not something which you expect from a renowned school like Wharton.
I believe that it is important to be open to Hear opinions and POV from all sphere of life. Diversity is one of the key promise from Wharton and Narendra Modi’s speech was able to offer just that – Sheer diverse opinions and style of politics- which may or may not be acceptable by a larger majority.
But then you have to appreciate good after understanding what is bad. Without listening to him WIEF has missed an opportunity and got negative publicity in bargain. Narendra Modi on other hand has risen on this publicity and will be interesting to see how he leverages this to his advantages.