Amartya Sen has no place in Nalanda University Board

President Pranab Mukherjee has dissolved the Nalanda Mentors Group (NMG) which was the de-facto governing body of the Nalanda University. Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen was part of the Nalanda Mentors group (NMG) since 2007. NMG was constituted to revive the Nalanda University. Amartya Sen resigned as Chancellor of the University in February 2015 but continued to be a member of the governing board. After nine years long association with the Nalanda University as Chancellor and later as a member of the governing board, he has not been included in the newly-constituted governing board of the University. A new governing board has been constituted by the President in accordance with Section 7 of the Nalanda University Act, 2010. Apart from Sen, Sugata Bose and UK-based economist Lord Meghnad Desai were also excluded from the newly constituted governing board.

The 14-member governing board constituted with immediate effect will have Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor, along with five members nominated by India, China, Australia, Laos PDR and Thailand. Former bureaucrat N K Singh will represent India. Besides, Secretary (East) in MEA, Preeti Saran, two members representing Bihar government, one member not below the rank of additional secretary (Ministry of HRD), and three members as renowned academicians / educationists to be nominated by the union government (Professor Arvind Sharma, McGill University, Canada, Professor Lokesh Chandra, Indian Council for Cultural Relations and Dr Arvind Panagariya, Niti Aayog) have been appointed by the government.

According to the Nalanda University Act 2010 which entered into force on November 25, 2010, NMG was to exercise the powers of governing board for a period of only one year. But, the term of NMG got extended till a new governing board was constituted on November 21, 2016.