Joshi labels his critics fascists

NEW DELHI, OCT 21: The war of words between scholars of the Leftist persuasion and the Union Human Resource Development Minister has resu...

NEW DELHI, OCT 21: The war of words between scholars of the Leftist persuasion and the Union Human Resource Development Minister has resumed in right earnest with Murli Manohar Joshi calling them 8220;fascists8221;. Defending his much-criticised appointment of M.L. Sondhi as chairman of the Indian Council for Social Science Research ICSSR and B R Grover as chairman of the Indian Council for Historical Research ICHR, Joshi said today it was not a 8220;crime to have a particular ideology. Both are very competent academics8221;.

But historian K M Panikkar has hit back by questioning the academic credentials of Grover. 8220;If Grover is convinced about Babri Masjid and helped the BJP in it that is his problem. I am only asking the Ministry to lay his academic credentials on the table. What are his degrees and what are his publications? I suppose the academic community should only be grateful that he has not appointed Arun Shourie or Vinay Katiyar to the post.8221;

Even the usually placid Ashis Nandy is agitated overSondhi8217;s appointment though he has made a broader point. 8220;All these institutions have become instruments of the regime. No good can come of these appointments. But I must say those who criticise the ICSSR appointment have lost the moral right to do so because they never said anything when the people they liked were appointed. Who was G Parthasarathy? Was he fit to become ICSSR chairman?8221;

Which is also Joshi8217;s point as he reels off a list of names. 8220;Sondhi was a professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University. G C Pande, the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies chairman, was vice-chancellor of the University of Jaipur. Hari Gautam, the University Grants Commission chairman, was V-C of Benaras Hindu University. They were not saffron then. Grover was a director in ICHR.

He was not persona non grata. J S Rajput, whom I appointed as chairman of NCERT, was close to Arjun Singh. That was all right. In fact, all these appointments are fine and fair. They were all selected at one time or the other by some othergovernment,8221; he says. So will Grover and Sondhi have a mandate? 8220;Nothing at all,8221; says Joshi. Not even in NCERT, he says.

8220;Including India8217;s contribution to world civilisation in our textbooks and reviewing them has nothing to do with any ideology.8221; He adds that both ICHR and ICSSR have members drawn from different parts of the country. 8220;This reflects the totality of Indian talent.8221;

As for the politicisation of these institutions, he says: 8220;People who live in glass houses shouldn8217;t throw stones at others. Neither Pande nor Grover have been members of the BJP or RSS.8221; As for Sondhi, who fought in New Delhi on a Jan Sangh ticket in 1967, Joshi says: 8220;Does an academic not have a right to contest elections? I am an academic.quot;