Arjun sends IIAS board packing

In a major blow to the pro-Murli Manohar Joshi camp running the show at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study (IIAS) in Shimla, the HRD Min...

In a major blow to the pro-Murli Manohar Joshi camp running the show at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study (IIAS) in Shimla, the HRD Ministry today sent the entire 24-member governing council of the institute and its chairman G.C. Pandey packing.

The clean-up happened within days of the Ministry sending a stern note to Pandey, asking him to explain why the institute’s director, Bhuvan Chandel, was refusing to cooperate with the one-man inquiry committee set up by the UPA Government to review the functioning of the institute. The Ministry has received several complaints on the institute’s decline and financial bunglings in the past six years.

In the Ministry’s choice of replacements, it is clear that HRD Minister Arjun Singh has tried to bring in big names. Eminent historian J.S. Grewal takes over as the new chairman, replacing Pandey who was considered close to the former HRD minister. Both Pandey and Joshi have known each other since their Allahabad University days. The new chairman is an authority on medieval, especially Sikh history. Shastri Bhawan had even consulted professor Grewal when there was talk of changing the NCERT syllabus, soon after the new dispensation took charge.

The IIAS governing body should include six new vice chancellors — heading that list is pro-Left historian Mushirul Hasan of Jamia Millia University. Other educationists on board include eminent scientist Jayant Narlikar, Professor Irfan Habib, Ayyappa Panicker, U.R. Ananthamurthy, Abhijit Sen, T.K. Oomen, Kirit Parikh and C.P. Chandrasekhar.

Magnitude 7.1 earthquake strikes near east coast of Russia’s Kamchatka region

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