Govt manipulated short-list for NGMA chief's job: Panelist

NEW DELHI: The appointment of new director general of National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), to be finalised on Wednesday , is likely to bring two of the three experts in the search and selection committee in conflict with the government over their respective choices for the post.

At the core of the appointment imbroglio are two competing choices for the DG's post. While two experts in the selection panel -B P Kamboj and Lakshmi Narayan Bhavsar -put the name of P Rajeev Nayan as their first choice, the government's first choice is Adwaita Gadanayak, head of department of sculpture, KIIT Univesity , Bhubaneshwar. Nayan is professor and dean, faculty of music and fine arts, Dr Shakuntala Misra National Rehabilitation University, Luknow.

Third expert Harsh Vardhan, however, had put Gadanayak as the first choice.

Talking to TOI, one of the experts in the selection panel accused the culture ministry of changing the order of the short-list after the issue co uldn't get resolved in favour of its candidate Gadanayak.

“First, the ministry said that since Nayan is the choice of experts, it need not be followed. The ministry also changed the order of shortlist and Nayan was put as the fourth name. So finally , when the average (choice of experts and ministry) was taken out he was nowhere in the running,“ said the expert from the search-cum-selection committee.

He said the ministry also delayed the announcement of advisory committee of Lalit Kala Akademi that has Bhavsar's name as well.

On Wednesday , the full search-cum-selection committee, under the chairmanship of cabinet secretary, will meet to resolve the imbroglio.