Congress has no right to cry hoarse over IGNCA revamp

The Narendra Modi government at the Centre on April 14 dissolved the trust of Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) and appointed 19 new members with senior journalist Ram Bahadur Rai as its president. Rai, a Padma Shri awardee and former news editor of Hindi daily Jansatta, has replaced Chinmaya Gharekhan.

The IGNCA was launched on November 19, 1985 by the then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in memory of his mother and predecessor Indira Gandhi to serve as a major resource centre for the arts, especially written, oral and visual source materials.

Quite predictably, the Congress, which itself can be accused of turning several government institutions into its fiefdom, dubbed the government's move as saffronisation of all institutions. Congress leader Renuka Chowdhury said the party was not "crying foul" but wondered whether reconstituting the IGNCA Board was a "national priority" for the culture and tourism ministry at a time when it should focus on steps to increase foreign tourist arrivals.

The reconstituted trust of IGNCA, an autonomous institution, will be functional with immediate effect, an official statement said. Besides Rai, the trust comprises members such as classical dancer Sonal Mansingh, lyricist Prasoon Joshi, artist Vasudeo Kamath and the Union culture ministry secretary.

The cribbing by the Congress over every such reconstitution is not justified and these are the four reasons why:

1. Old charge of saffronisation

Union culture minister Mahesh Sharma justified IGNCA's revamp and rightly pointed out that it was an old practice.

The Congress too places people who believe in its ideology in key posts in government bodies and institutions. But when the BJP follows the tradition, it resorts to the "saffronisation" charge. The Congress had levelled the same allegation at least 15 years ago when the then NDA government under Atal Bihari Vajpayee had revamped IGNCA, Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA), among other institutions. ICWA's former president Harcharan Singh Josh had accused the then Union urban affairs minister Jagmohan of trying to "saffronise" Sapru House, headquarters of the ICWA, at the behest of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

"Like other institutions, Mr Jagmohan is trying to do bhagwakaran (saffronisation) of the ICWA and Sapru House premise at the behest of the RSS," Josh, who was unceremoniously removed as ICWA president, had said on August 26, 2001.

"They have saffronised the ICCR, ICSSR, ICHR, the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, and now the RSS eye has fallen on the ICWA,'' he had alleged, appealing to all progressive and secular parties in the Rajya Sabha to stop the ordinance on the ICWA.

2. Congress' monopoly

The Congress has been calling the shots for several decades and its ideological supporters have had a free rein presiding over these cultural institutions. It treats these bodies with a Nehruvian legacy as its personal fiefdom and behaves as if no other ruling party, with or without a different ideological orientation, has a right to constitute its own team to man the organisations.

The Congress attacks the BJP whenever the latter replaces the Congress appointees with its own people. It even supports protests in these organisations and institutes. Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi visited the students of Films and Television Institute of India (FTII) who were protesting against the appointment of Gajendra Chauhan as its chairman.

It has also opposed the change of guard in Nehru Library and Museum, Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR), National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT), University Grants Commission (UGC), Central Board of Film Certification and the likes.

3. Democratic tradition

As a democratic norm, every ruling party appoints its own team in government bodies and institutes for their smooth functioning. The BJP rarely objects to the Congress taking control of all the bodies whenever it comes to power. In fact, the party does not even oppose the numerous bodies named after the Nehru-Gandhi family - Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi. But the Congress starts crying hoarse whenever the BJP replaces their favourites with its own kind of cultural practitioners after coming to power. The Congress should respect this democratic tradition of its rivals making their own choices when in power.

4. A voice of sanity

However, perhaps for the very first time, a more mature and sane voice was heard, quite unexpectedly, on April 14, that too from none other than the outgoing president of IGNCA. Gharekhan, who held the post of consecutively for nine years, was more balanced and pragmatic than the needlessly outraged Congress leaders while replying to the government's move of replacing him and other members.

"There is no mystery about it. The board of trustees is always appointed by the government. Government has every right to reconstitute the board, change its composition any time it wants to. And all successive governments have done this," he said. Gharekhan said such a move was expected "for a long time" after NDA came to power and wondered why the reconstitution did not happen despite the BJP-led coalition being at the helm of country's affairs for nearly two years now.

Hopefully, the Congress learns a lesson from Garekhan and stops complaining.