The prestige attached to cracking the tough IIT-JEE Advanced exam is apparent when coaching institutes start giving out luxury cars to their toppers. Tanmaya Shekhawat was ranked 11th in this year's entrance exam for the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and was gifted a BMW car by the institute in Sikar, Rajasthan, where he prepared for the exam.
But now, after six months, the student's family is feeling the burden of having to keep and maintain the swanky vehicle.
His father, Rajeshwar Singh Shekhawat, who's a school teacher, has asked the institute to sell the car and give them the money or give something else to Tanmaya in place of the car, even a laptop, reported Hindustan Times.
Rajeshwar says that even if the family decides to keep the Rs 28-lakh car, they'll have to give Rs 9 lakh as tax and there's no way for them to pay that amount of money, along with the high running and maintenance costs of the car.
The coaching institute, however, narrates a different chain of events. RL Poonia, Director of Samarpan Career Institute at Sikar told HT:
Earlier they wanted to keep it. They said the boy’s maternal uncle in Mumbai could keep it. Now they want to sell it as they need money for the treatment of the boy’s mother, who is a kidney patient.
They'll put the car up for sale and the family is free to sell it themselves as well, said Poonia.
The unprecedented move of gifting such an expensive car to a student who topped in a coaching institute was seen as a marketing gimmick. Sikar, which is 115km from Jaipur, is seeking to attract students in an attempt to compete with Kota, which is known for being the coaching hub of India.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)