'DNA' special: How PMO shot down Pranab’s choice for Nalanda VC

The Congress may be finalising plans to anoint its man Friday finance minister Pranab Mukherjee as the next President, but DNA has accessed documents that show how his choice of Professor Ramachandra Guha as vice-chancellor of upcoming Nalanda University was shot down by the prime minister’s office.

The PMO, which normally relies on Mukherjee on governance matters, favoured Dr Gopa Sabharwal, reader in Delhi’s Lady Sri Ram College, for the lucrative post at the international university that fetches a salary of Rs 5.06 lakh per month.

The secretary (east) in the ministry of external affairs, N Ravi, forwarded bio-data of three candidates as recommended by Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, chairman of the mentor group for the university.

They included Dr Gopa Sabharwal, Prof Ramachandra Guha and Prof Pratap Bhanu Mehta, president of the Centre for Policy Research.

Mukherjee, in his own hand, reversed the order and placed Dr Guha on the top, recommending the PM to approve appointment of one of the three persons as per the order. The note mentioned Dr Guha eminent historian and author of a bestselling history of independent India.

However, a week later on March 2, 2009, when Mukherjee was minister of external affairs, foreign secretary Shiv Shankar Menon informed the principal secretary in the PMO has returned the file, with the advice that Dr Sabharwal be kept on top of the order.

More so, the governing board of the University has now approached the finance ministry headed by Mukherjee asking to free the vice-chancellor’s salary from tax liabilities. The university coming up on the ruins of the ancient Nalanda, a great seat of learning in Buddhist philosophy and statecraft from 5th to 12th century, in Bihar is already besmirched with controversies.

On August 25 last year, the MEA, which took the university as its baby, told the Rajya Sabha that no vice-chancellor has been appointed for the university. But an RTI reply on November 22 from the same ministry under the signature of joint secretary Nagendra Kumar Saxena reveals that on the recommendations of the Nalanda Mentor Group, Dr Sabharwal had been functioning as VC since October 2010.

The Bihar government has already acquired and transferred 446 acres of land in Rajbir, in the vicinity of the original Nalanda University site, but the university has set up its office at RK Puram in Delhi.

While there is already heartburn amongst academic community on the salaries offered in Nalanda university, the Planning Commission recently constituted a committee to suggest amendments to the Nalanda University Act, 2010. A press release said the committee would examine provisions related to academic, administrative and financial autonomy as well as suggest amendments to provide full autonomy in matters relating to making appointments and determining salaries and emoluments and auditing.