Wrong person hampered progress

The new wing of the Lalit Kala Akademi in Lucknow

It is so easy to blame the government for all the ills that befall us but in the name of autonomy the reins of institutions shouldn’t also be handed over to self-serving, arbitrary and avaricious individuals. The whole point of granting autonomy to those institutions is that they are so significant that they need to work independent of narrow interests. If we choose thieves as chowkidars, who are we to blame? 

The case in point is the unending saga of Lalit Kala Akademi. I attempted to update myself on what was happening there and I yet again stumbled on the proverbial can of worms. I am not surprised that the Ministry of Culture had to sit up and take notice but hopefully the wrongs will soon be righted. I am pained about how choosing a wrong person can set an institution back so badly. Let me start at the beginning.

The problems started when they chose a tainted and relatively junior bureaucrat (he retired as joint secretary) like Ashok Vajpayee as chairman of LKA. Except his association with S.H. Raza and writing a few desultory catalogue notes I wonder what the locus was for him being appointed to the august body. During his five-year tenure he allegedly played his predictable favourites to dole out whatever benefits could accrue from the LKA, including giving the galleries gratis to commercial galleries during the Commonwealth Games despite noting on the files to the contrary. This resulted in huge loss to the public exchequer, which by the way is yet to be recovered. 

In the last month of his tenure, he even threw out the secretary of the LKA ostensibly for “not holding the triennial” among a few unproven allegations but the actual agenda was that Vajpayee was interested in another term as chairman. The then ministry mandarins scrapped the orders and the Secretary, Dr Sudhakar Sharma was back in harness. In the intermittent period until the appointment of the new chairman, the vice chairman K.R. Subbanna took over and peace reigned. But it was not to be.

It is rumoured that Ashok Vajpayee lobbied and got K.K. Chakravarty the hot seat to put a veil on his own wrongdoings further his “half-finished” work. While Chakravarty managed to wangle prestigious postings at Manav Sangrahalaya, Bhopal, National Museum, Indira Gandhi Center for Arts and Delhi Institute of Heritage Research and Management in Delhi, unfortunately there are many CVC or CBI investigations on him, including financial mismanagement. Incidentally salary paid to him was in violation of the provisions of the constitution of the DIHRM, registered under the Societies Registration Act – as it was an honorary post.

At LKA he carved a room within a room to carry on the work of DIHRM. Reliable sources in the LKA allege that he took away a truck load of files when the government took over. In the absence of secretary, vice chairman, general council and executive board, he not only conducted all the executive functions of the Akademi but was also involved in its day-to-day functioning, which is not the role defined for the LKA chairman.

Even before he joined the LKA, Chakravarty again threw out the secretary. This is really suspicious for I have been following Dr Sharma’s career almost for the last three decades in institutions like National Museum, National Gallery of Modern Art and of course the Lalit Kala Akademi and I am happy to report that his track record is actually unblemished, a fact borne out in subsequent enquiries by his detractors, so much so that they were left with little option but to drop the charges on him in court. 

The focus on development of LKA’s infrastructure in Delhi including creating a new wing comprising of a large gallery space, an auditorium, and the administrative wing during Dr Sharma’s tenure was carried out with space carved for storage and putting the library in order. 

He went about creating a new wing at the Lucknow regional centre and put in place LKA’s new branch in the historical landmark Gaiety Theatre of Shimla and publication outlets at Kochi and Srimanta Sankaradeva Kalakshetra in Guwahati with almost missionary zeal!

His efforts paid off literally and metaphorically as revenue earnings shot up from the initial Rs 10 lakh to Rs 1 crore per annum.

But this poor officer was forced to take legal recourse and even after abatement of the charge sheet and winning the case in court is still in the process of getting reinstated and join office, for even despite ministerial orders Chakravarty went ahead and ridiculed the quasi-judicial order by stalling its implementation and also made a mockery of the Central Administrative Tribunal and law of the land for this is contempt of court. Hopefully inquires will be initiated against Vajpayee and Chakravarty under government rule and Dr Sharma’s harassment at the hands of the former chairmen will come to an end and justice will not be delayed – remember the old adage?

Recently I happened to re-read the wonderful lines by Winston Churchill when asked to cut arts funding in favour of the war effort, he simply replied: “Then what are we fighting for?” My point exactly.

(Source: The Asian Age, 21 May 2015)