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Once the University of Nalanda Bill, 2007 was passed by the Bihar Legislature,
the Government of India decided to revive the same as a centre for Buddhist
and Secular learning with the active participation of countries within the East
Asia Summit which shares a common interest in the Buddhist heritage with
India. With this objective, the Union Government established a Nalanda Mentor
Group (NMG) to examine the framework of international cooperation, the
governance structure of the university, modalities for its funding and proposal
for the revival of the University. The Indian Government invited Professor
Amartya Sen by a letter from the then External Affair Minister, Pranab
Mukherjee dated 28th June, 2007 to chair the NMG. Other members include
George Yeo, the then Foreign Minister of Singapore, Ikuo Hirayama, Professor
Wang Bengwei, Professor Sugata Bose, Lord Meghnad Desai, Tansen Sen,
N.K. Singh, and N. Ravi, the then Secretary (East) in the Ministry of External
Affairs. Professor Y.S. Rajan was requested to assist the NMG as a special
invitee. The group held four meetings in Singapore, Beijing, Tokyo and Delhi.
In the very first meeting of the NMG held in Singapore from July 13-15, 2007;
they suggested following schools or departments for the University: Philosophy& Buddhist studies; regional history, business and management studies;
international relations and peace studies, and study of languages as well as
linguistics. The members agreed that the University should benefit the local
people and encourage the participation of local communities. The NMG had to
submit final recommendations in a report to the Government of India within a
period of nine months from the date of constitution of the Mentor Group as per
the term of reference of its constitution. The NMG was authorized to issue
Interim Reports if it so desire, prior to the completion of its work.The NMG
failed in the objective so far. In spite of four meetings held across the continent,
the NMG Chairperson kept on reiterating that the Report would be submitted in
the East Asia Summit to divert the attention .First, the report was to be
submitted by February,2008. Secondly, as per the terms of reference, the report
wass to be submitted to the Government of India. If the Report was ready, the
NMG should have submitted the same to the Indian Government. The Indian
Government was supposed to place the report before member states of the East
Asia summit for an Inter-Governmental Agreement as per initial letter of
constituting NMG.but, neither any Inter Government ever signed, nor any
International University was established as the Parliament passed the Nalanda
university Bill and the same was notified on 22 September, 2010. Neither in the
Act nor in the Notification, there is any mention of Nalanda University being anInternational university Before the constitution of a Governing Board, the
Nalanda Mentor Group was entrusted to function as the Interim Governing
Board. The power to appoint the VC is vested with the President of India.
But, the NMG appointed a novice Dr. Gopa Sabharwal as Vice chancellor even
before the President assented the Bill. The said VC appointed her colleague,
Anjana Sharma as her OSD at a hopping salary of Rs. 3.3 lakh per month. The
whole project appears to be shrouded in secrecy and appointments made show
utter disregard for Nalalnda tradition, the local community ,Buddhist religion
and laws of the land.
The composition of NMG/GB puts a question mark on the future of the
Nalanda Project which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh claims to signify as
Asian renaissance. Take the case of Amartya Sen. Born in Santiniketan, he is
maternal grandson of Kshitimohan Sen, a close associate of the great Asianist,
Rabindranath Tagore. Nonetheless Amartya Sen has been a vocal spokesperson
of Anglo-American knowledge tradition. A Doctorate from Trinity College,
Cambridge, he worked as Professor at Harvard University. He has been
conferred honorary degree of D.Litt all across western world. In Asia, none
except home country has bestowed any honor upon him. He came into
prominence after association with Mahbub-ul Haq who encouraged him to work
jointly on the UNDP’s HDR report in 1990. Haq held the coveted positions due
to his close association with Robert McNamara during 1970s. One should not
forget McNamara’s role during Vietnam War. If Paul Wolfowitz did mischief
with Iraq invasion in this decade to later get nominated as the President of the
Word Bank, McNamara had traversed similar path earlier by using destruction
of Vietnam. Haq was his adviser while he functioned as World Bank President.
Sen’s reciprocal admiration for his friend, the speculator George Soros is in
public domain. Soros crated the Asian Currency crisis during 1990s in tandem
with American administration when Asian values’ debates was asianizing Asia
under the ideological leadership of Shintari Ishihara, Lee Kuan Yew,Mahathir
Mohamed , Balahari Kaushiken, Kishore Mahbubani, Ogura Kazuo et al. Sen’s
asianist credentials deserves serious scrutiny. He is a member of the American
Philosophical Association, American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is a
winner of Adam Smith prize. He fiddles with the political economy of Smith,
Bentham and Rawls. He got Nobel prize for work on poverty and issue
statements these days of being sought after by the Head of States of the western
countries for his insights on financial meltdown. He is divorced from Asian
knowledge tradition. Significantly, he divorced his only Asian wife, the first
wife, Nabaneeta, a poet of repute. He is said to have stolen the Italian wife of
his colleague while living in Delhi in early 1970s and left India. But,hismarriage with Italian economist Eva Colorni failed. Long relationship with
philosopher Martha Nussbaum culminated into mere jointly published works.
Emma Rothschild, the present wife is a historian of western ideas. Sen lives in
glitterati world of academics and relationships. Nalanda tradition is
exemplified by simplicity, solitariness, satisfaction, contemplation and
wisdom! Does the Chairman of the NMG/GB fit at all in this pious tradition,
which thrived on sanctity of knowledge and ethical requirement of the highest
order?
Take the case of NMG members George Yeo, the most ardent supporter of the
revival idea. Even he completed his Engineering at Cambridge University and
went to the Harvard Business School in 1983 to complete MBA. He has been
a Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) scholar and earned the rank of Brigadier
General before entering politics. Recently he was termed as the most expensive
Foreign Minister of the world by none other then Times magazine.He lost the
elections in Singapore and now involved with the world Economic Summit at
Davos.
Professor Sugata Bose earned a doctorate degree from the Cambridge before
moving to Harvard University.Recently , he has been in news for the book,HisMajesty's Opponent: Subhas Candra Bose and India's Struggle against
Empire (2011) in which he has rebuffed the Mukherjee Commission report on
Netaji’s mysterious disappearance.Meghanad desai was recently in news for
facilitating plagiarism by Saif gaddafi, the Libyan leader now on run and claiming
that India should not demand return of Kohinoor diamond from Britain.
Professor Tansen Sen was teaching at City University of New York and now
joined the Nalanda-Sriwijaya Centre at Singapore. N.K. Singh has been an
ardent supporter of IMF-WB prescriptions. Recently, he figured in infamous
Nira Radia case pertaining to 2G scam. Ikuo Hirayama who organizes ‘Red
Cross spirit for cultural Heritage” movement was to be invited with an
alternative choice, Nakanishi Susumu. The NMG seems to be a gathering
of Harvard-Cambridge alumni. Though, the NMG claim to encourage the
participation of local communities, none of the scholars of Nalanda tradition
or Nalanda find any mention in the NMG deliberations. There can be a
long list of alternative members that could have included Dr. Ravindra Panth
(Director, Nava Nalanda Mahavihar), Ishwari Prasad (Nalanda resident who
is an economist and a veteran Gandhian socialist), Xinru Liu (the legendary
historian who without former education wrote marvelous books), Professor
Ranabir Samaddar (former Director of Maulana Azad Institute of Asian Studies,
Calcutta and a reputed scholar on Asian consciousness), Venerable Lama
Chospel Zotspa ( former Member, National Minority Commission), Professor
C.Mani (Senior Fellow, ICHR), Professor Tashi Paljor (Director CentralInstitute of Buddhist Studies, Leh), Dr. Nawang Samten, Director, Central
Institute for Tibetan Studies,Sarnath, Dr. Lokesh Chandra, Kapila Vatsayan,
Shanthum Seth, Professor Kimiaki Tanaka(Tokyo), Ven. Damba Ayasheev
(Supreme Head, Buddhist Traditional Sangha of Russia); Ven. Dr. Fa Quing
(Than Siang Temple, Penang, Malaysia), G.Mend –Ooyo, the Poet Laureate
of Mongolia,Kpila Vatsayan(M.P.), Professor Prasenjit Duara, J.V. Naralikar,
Abhay Ashtekar and V.S.Ramchandran.
The NMG’s approach run contrary to Nalanda tradition. When Nalanda was
destroyed third time, in 1197 A.D., the University of Oxford (f.1167 A.D.) was
in infancy. Oxbridge-Harvard tradition of knowledge that values utility, greed,
conquest domination and self-interest cannot match the Nalanda tradition that
fused prajna with Karuna, silence with logic, dharma with karma. The idea of
revival of Nalanda tradition under the tutelage of decaying Oxbridge-Harvard
tradition’s brown troopers seems outlandish since inception. This is becoming
evident with the claim of the fake VC, Gopa Sabharwal to media in Bihar that
she has been given “free hand” by Amartya Sen to run Nalanda international
University. Revival of Nalanda requires persons who can work with minimum
expenses and not at a gross salary of more than Rs. 5 lakh a month. This is
antithesis to Nalanda tradition. Handful of people cannot be allowed to become
the new Bakhtiyar Khiljis.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this report are purely those of the author and may not in any circumstances be regarded as the official view of BiharTimes.
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