After Subramanian Swamy hoax, HRD Ministry sets ball rolling for new JNU VC

NEW DELHI: Subramanian Swamy may have set the stage for appointment of the next Vice chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University with his claims of being an informal frontrunner; the formal process, however, has only been initiated now by the HRD Ministry. The ministry has last week constituted the search cum selection committee to appoint the new VC to JNU. The search committee will be headed by the former VC of Banaras Hindu University who is at present the Director at the National Assessment & Accreditation Council — Prof Dhirendra Pal Singh. The two others on the search cum committee are former ISRO chief K Radhakrishnan and former diplomat Ashok Sen. Radhakrishnan and Sen were appointed to the selection committee as per the recommendations of the JNUI Executive Committee and Prof D P Singh is the nominee of the Visitor to the Central University— the President of India. The HRD ministry has also invited applications to the VC’s post which will now be screened by this selection committee. Noted scientist Prof Sudhir Kumar Sopory, who is currently the JNU VC, completes his term in January 2016.