In a letter, Dr Sen announces that he is opting out of a second term in the post
Is the government blocking one of the world's most celebrated economists and thinkers, Nobel Laureate Dr Amartya Sen, from a second term as Chancellor of Nalanda University? That's certainly what Dr Sen himself believes.
In a five-page letter to the Governing Board of the University, accessed exclusively by NDTV, Dr Amartya Sen announces that he is opting out of a second term in the post, despite the governing board unanimously voting to elect him on January 13.
In a stinging criticism of government interference in academia, Dr Sen writes that he is, "...sad, at a more general level that academic governance in India remains so deeply vulnerable to opinions of the ruling government..."
Dr Sen writes that his decision to not continue in the post after July was after neither the President, Pranab Mukherjee, nor the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) replied to the Board's decision. Because the Board consists of representatives of several Asian countries, the rules required the decision to be routed through the MEA to Rashtrapati Bhawan. After a month of silence from both the MEA and the President's House, Dr Sen writes that he concluded that, "...the government wants me to cease being the Chancellor."
Referring to President Mukherjee's keen involvement in the progress of the University, Dr Sen concludes that "something makes it difficult - or impossible - for him to act with speed in this matter." Accusing the government of attempting to unilaterally reconstitute the entire University Board, Dr Sen points out that, "the legal provisions (some of them from colonial days) allow the government to turn an academic issue into a matter of political dispensation."
Through the 2014 Lok Sabha election campaign, Dr Amartya Sen was a critic of Narendra Modi and the latest controversy may fast catapult into a political debate, especially given the high profile of all the protagonists involved.