Won't reconsider decision without academic independence: Amartya Sen

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The 81-year-old economist maintained that the government's claim that the minutes of the governing body's meeting had not reached it was "false".

Kolkata: Nobel laureate Amartya Sen on Saturday ruled out reconsidering his decision not to seek a second term as Chancellor of Nalanda University since that would require a change in the position of the government on the academic independence of Nalanda University.

The 81-year-old economist's decision to withdraw his candidature as the university Chair for the second term after complaining about political interference in academic matters has sparked off a controversy. The union government had not forwarded his name affirming a second term to the Visitor, President Pranab Mukherjee, despite unanimous recommendation of his name by the university's governing body.

Asked whether he would reconsider his decision Sen said, "No, I think there is no reason for me to reconsider. It is not about my tenure, it is about academic freedom...they would have to guarantee academic independence of Nalanda, which they do not seem to want. If they did that, this would of course be a different matter altogether."

He maintained that the government's claim that the minutes of the governing body's meeting had not reached it was "false". Giving the details of the meeting, he said in the special meeting of the Board on January 14, chaired by Singapore's George Yeo (Sen having recused himself), the decision that was taken was followed by a special minuting meeting affirming the language of the decision, where the minuting formally took place.

This was communicated to the President -the Visitor of Nalanda- on January 15 and confirmed by a further written communication from the Vice Chancellor on January 20 to the Ministry of External Affairs, he added.

"That special meeting on the Chancellorship, chaired by George Yeo, was quite a separate one from the general Board meeting chaired by Sen himself, the provisional minutes of which went out in February. "The Ministry seems to have failed to understand the distinction between the two formally different meetings - one chaired by Yeo (on the Chancellorship) and another by Sen (on all other matters)," Sen said.