Government picks a new chief of IGNCA, Congress fumes

The government on Thursday reconstituted the board of the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA), naming senior journalist Ram Bahadur Rai as president of the trust. While the government said the new appointees were “deserving” and will “enhance” the IGNCA’s fame, the Congress attacked the move, accusing the Narendra Modi government of playing a “cruel joke on the legacy of Indira Gandhi”.

Mr Rai, former news editor of Hindi daily Jansatta, will replace former diplomat Chinmaya Gharekhan. A culture ministry statement said the reconstitution was being done with immediate effect. The 19 members of the new board include dancer Sonal Mansingh, Bollywood lyricist Prasoon Joshi and artist Vasudeo Kamath.

Minister of state for culture Mahesh Sharma said the IGNCA’s revamp was part of a “continuous process”, and the new appointees were “deserving people”. He said: “Ram Bahadur is a well-known journalist and deserving as well. Such people will increase the fame of the institute.”

Congress leader Anand Sharma said it was another “step of undermining the established institutions”, and added: “It reflects the mindset of the Modi government. It’s a cruel joke.”

Congress criticises IGNCA change Congress leader Anand Sharma, criticising the changes in the IGNCA’s board, said: “The government brought critics of the first Prime Minister on the Nehru Memorial Society. Now it has done so for Indira Gandhi. We strongly criticise this development as they have done these things previously as well. This is the predetermined agenda of not only the government but also its parent organisation, the RSS.”

The move comes exactly a year after the government revamped the Nehru Memorial Museum Library Society (NMMLS). Considered a Congress legacy, the NMMLS reconstitution was done in April 2015.

“It is not done for the first time. It’s a continous process, similar steps were taken in 2000, 2004 and 2007,” the minister said, adding that the government hopes to “take forward, promote and preserve the country’s culture, heritage, art and literature in the wake of the ‘change’.” He also noted the new IGNCA head has been associated with the thoughts of Mahatma Gandhi and Jayaprakash Narayan, besides being a “noted” journalist. “All the 20 people in the list as trustees, they are experts in their fields,” he added.

Congress leader Renuka Chaudhary told this newspaper that these are “futile excercises” by the government to restore its image.

“The government has been undoing institutions. I wonder whether reconstituting the IGNCA board was a national priority for the culture and tourism ministry at a time when it should focus on increasing the foreign tourist arrivals. These are just futile exercises,” she said.

Mr Gharekhan, a retired career diplomat who had once served as India’s permanent representative to the UN, who was appointed during UPA-1, downplayed the reconstitution of the trust, saying “there is no mystery” in it as he noted “all successive” governments have done the same in the past.