Nalanda University's governing board dissolved, so ends Amartya Sen's 9-year-long association

In his capacity as the visitor of Nalanda University (NU), President Pranab Mukherjee dissolved the university’s governing board on Monday, reported The Wire. Furthermore, he also dismissed the Nalanda Mentors Group’s decision to extend it’s Vice-Chancellor Gopa Sabharwal’s present term which ends on 24 November. [caption id=“attachment_2338086” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] A file image of Amartya Sen. AFP[/caption] On Saturday, NU had said that there will be no hiatus in the leadership of the university. “The chancellor and the governing board are grateful to Sabharwal for agreeing to act as interim vice-chancellor until a new vice-chancellor is in place,” a press release from the university had said. The website quoted a source as saying, “The president, in his capacity as the visitor of Nalanda University, has approved the constitution of the governing board of the university in accordance with section 7 of the Nalanda University Act, 2010.” Arvind Sharma of McGill University, Niti Aayog vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya and Lokesh Chandra, president of Indian Council for Cultural Relations, were nominated by the government to the governing board under the three seats reserved for ‘Renowned Academicians/Educationists’. However, this decision also ends the nine-year-long association of Nobel laureate Amartya Sen who was also a member of the governing board. In February 2015 , Sen had a sour exit as the chancellor of NU, a global university being set up under an act of Parliament in Bihar’s Rajgir district. He was miffed that the NDA government is in no hurry to extend his tenure. In a letter to the NU board, which is dominated by many international names, Sen had said, “it is hard for me not to conclude that the government wants me the cease being the chancellor of NU after this July, and technically it has the power to do so.” George Yeo, a former foreign minister of Singapore, replaced Amartya Sen as the chancellor last year. With inputs from IANS