In a politically provocative move, the government today dissolved the board of the Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts or IGNCA, set up by Rajiv Gandhi, and announced a new chief.
The premier arts body was founded in 1985 in the memory of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and inaugurated by her son and then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.
Senior journalist Ram Bahadur Rai, a Padma Shri winner, has been appointed as its new chief in place of Chinmaya Ghare Khan. Mr Rai will lead a new 20-member team that includes Sonal Mansingh, Chandraprakash Dwivedi, Nitin Desai, K Arvinda Rao, Rati Vinay Jha, Professor Nirmala Sharma, Harsh Neotia, Padma Subrahmaniam, Saryu Doshi and Prasoon Joshi.
IGNCA serves as a resource centre for the arts and undertakes research and publication programmes. It is headquartered in a sprawling 21-acre ground not far from top government offices in the centre of Delhi.
“New people must be given a chance to work for this. The new members are all eminent people in their fields. The president is a philanthropist, a noted journalist and a known Gandhian,” said Union Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma, insisting that nothing should be read into the changes.
“People expect change and we are bringing it in the interest of transparency and innovation.”
The government reportedly signed off on the decision last night.
Chinmaya Ghare Khan, the outgoing chairman, said: “I fully expected this. Every government has done this.”