Patna,(BiharTimes): Ten days after BiharTimes did the story for the first time on the appointment of Dr Gopa Sabarwal, a Reader in Lady Shri Ram College in Delhi, as the Vice Chancellor of Nalanda International University, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday washed his hands of from the controversy by passing the buck on the Centre.

Responding to the media’s query on the issue the chief minister said “I have nothing to do with this appointment. This is not our issue. The Centre has appointed him. I want that this University start functioning soon. I have not left any stone unturned in this regard. When the Centre made an Act in this regard and we declared our Act null and void. We have even provided land for the Nalanda International University."

It is true that the state has little role to play in the Nalanda International University yet the absence of protest over Dr Sabarwal’s appointment by Janata Dal (United) MP, N K Singh, who is also in the Mentor Group, surprised many in Bihar.

It also remained a mystery as to under which circumstances former President Dr A P J Abdul Kalam dissociated himself from the Nalanda International University though he was named as Visitor by the Bihar government only three years back. In fact he and Nitish even visited the site of the NIU in February 2008.

What sounds even more intriguing is the total silence of the local and national media. It took 10 days for the electronic media to carry the news for the first time after it was carried by BiharTimes on September 3 last.

However, the print media chose to black out the news completely. No English newspaper even dared to carry Nitish’s clarification while only a couple of Hindi newspapers did carry it.

The mediapersons sought the chief minister’s opinion for the first time on Monday, that is nine days after BiharTimes first flashed the news. Why the media remained tightlipped on the issue of such importance for Bihar?

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