I was ousted from Nalanda University: Amartya Sen lashes out at Modi govt interference

Barely a few months after Amartya Sen withdrew his candidature as chancellor of Nalanda University, the Nobel Laureate has once again lashed out at the Modi government for ousting him from the University.

He has written about his exit in a no-holds-barred 4000 word essay for the August issue of the New York Review of Books that is yet to be published, and also gave an interview to Sagarika Ghose for  Times of India . Sen has also revealed in the exclusive that this is “not an isolated incident” but a part of the Modi government’s attempt to possess direct control over academic institutions.

“I was certainly ousted from Nalanda. Some members of the Board, especially the foreign members were keen on carrying on the battle for me but I stepped aside as I did not want to be an ineffective leader. The government may have held up finances or statues had I continued,” said Sen, adding that the interference by the government in academia was “extraordinarily large”

He also provides some examples: The former head of NBT, writer Sethumadhavan, was asked to step down in favour of an RSS candidate.

He also added that the current head of Indian Council for Cultural Relations, Lokesh Chandra believed that Modi was a better personality than Mahatma Gandhi.

Sen further spoke about the poor health of the economy and expressed concern at budget cuts in health and education. He was also critical of the draft IIM bill, which he rues gives direct control to the government.

After his interview, Amartya Sen started to trend on Twitter all of Tuesday morning.