Nehru Memorial Museum & Library fuss is political: Professor Kapil Kumar

NEW DELHI: The controversy over the selection of a new head for the Nehru Memorial Museum & Library ( NMML) has worsened with one of the shortlisted candidates, Indira Gandhi National Open University Professor Kapil Kumar, hitting out at those questioning his academic stature.

Kumar suggested possible political, not academic, reasons behind the controversy over the process to select the director to an institute that has been considered the legacy of the Congress party.

NMML executive council members Pratap Bhanu Mehta and Nitin Desai had raised dissent over the shortlisting of Kumar and Shakti Sinha, a former bureaucrat and Vajpayee aide who is the top contender for the post. Mehta has since resigned from NMML.

“I don’t want to comment on the selection process, but I am sad about the defamatory comments that have been made on my CV and stature. I reserve my right to act against those who are questioning my academic and administrative stature.



My CV is an open document on the IGNOU website,” Kumar told ET. Kumar said he would “like to be away from the politics of appointments”.

But he also sought to draw attention to the qualification of former NMML directors like Prof Mridula Mukherjee, OP Kejriwal and BR Nanda, appointed when the Congress was in power, with those who are shortlisted now. Kejriwal was a former bureaucrat, like Sinha. Nanda was a former railway official and writer while Mukherjee, a historian.

Sinha, who took voluntary retirement from IAS in 2013, is now a board member at the Indian Foundation headed by Ram Madhav. He refused to comment on the row.

“I know nothing except what is being published in the newspapers. I would not want to say anything on the matter just now,” Sinha told ET. Lokesh Chandra, chairman of the NMML executive council that prepared the shortlist, told ET that all due process had been followed for the selection.

“We appointed a search committee which gave some names. Yes, some people expressed dissent and the dissent has been noted. There is no question at all of me dissenting. We have put up the recommendations of the selection committee before the culture ministry and we are awaiting their decision,” Chandra said.

ET reported on Tuesday that after Mehta resigned, there was another strong dissenting voice. At a meeting of the council last week, Desai, economist and former Under Secretary General of the United Nations, expressed strong reservations over the shortlisting of Sinha and Kumar for the job.

Desai, who participated in the meeting over the phone, is learnt to have contended that Sinha and Kumar did not have the academic stature required to head an organisation of the repute of NMML. His dissent was noted in the EC meeting, Chandra confirmed to ET.

Meanwhile, murmurs are being raised within NMML over the legality of someone participating in a meeting over phone and recording dissent. There are also questions being raised about Mehta’s stand on the issue and why he went ahead with the process if he felt that the shortlisted candidates were not suitable.

NMML is considered as an important legacy of the Nehru-Gandhi family and had Congress President Sonia Gandhi on board until the government changed hands in 2014 .