Minister of State for Culture Mahesh Sharma effected a change in the membership of the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, removing UPA appointees before their tenure ended and installing some of his own.
The old trustees said they were surprised that the change came after over two years of BJP rule.
Mr. Sharma reportedly took the decision on Wednesday night.
Ram Bahadur Rai, former news editor of Jansatta and a Padma Shri winner, has been appointed president. He replaces the former diplomat, Chinmaya Ghare Khan.
Mr. Gharekhan told The Hindu : “Every government has appointed its people. I have been here for nine years, and I think the government is well within its rights to effect any change.”
On the other hand, Kapila Vatsyayan, a trustee whose name is synonymous with the centre, said: “One has been through all this and more. I am too old to react.”
Sources among those who have been replaced said the tenure of some trustees was to last till 2018. This was not a question of the prerogative of the party in power to change, but how the change was effected, they said.
Senior Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi said: “There is a vast difference between appointing a person of your choice, even less than suitable, and terminating an appointment well before its completion. The latter is wrong, ethically and legally, and suggests a pressing insecurity to keep altering institutional structures merely because you are in power.”
Mr. Rai is just one of the new names along with some familiar ones like Sonal Mansingh, Chandraprakash Dwivedi and Padma Subramaniam, who are said to be close to the BJP and the Sangh Parivar. The 20-member team also includes Nitin Desai, K. Arvinda Rao, Rati Vinay Jha, Professor Nirmala Sharma, Harsh Neotia and Saryu Doshi.
