When the Left is 'right'

By Hasan Suroor

NEW DELHI, MAY 12. A splash of red in a season of ``saffronisation'' was the last thing anyone was expecting; and when it happened even as there was clearly a sense of relief in ``non-saffron'' circles, there was also a temptation to look the ``gift horse'' in the mouth.

How had the ``unthinkable'' happened? This was the question everybody seemed to be asking a day after Prof. Deepak Nayyar was appointed Vice-Chancellor of Delhi University defying the ``conventional'' wisdom that the Vajpayee Government was looking for someone closer to the Sangh Parivar. The impression had gained ground particularly after the search committee was told, last month, to meet again though it had already submitted a panel of names.

So, is there something more to the selection of a Left-leaning economist to head a premier university than meets the eye? Is it a smart political move by the Human Resource Development Minister, Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi, to silence his critics, particularly those on the Left, who have been accusing him of ``saffronising'' key academic institutions? Or was he ``outmanoeuvred'' in his bid to have a man of his choice, as some Left academics sought to suggest today.

Sources in the Ministry refuted the suggestion saying Prof. Nayyar's selection had Dr. Joshi's full backing. They pointed out that while Prof. Nayyar may be perceived as a Left- wing economist, there were several issues on which he and Dr. Joshi were on the same wavelength.

A senior HRD Ministry official explained that on the question of indiscriminate globalisation for instance the two shared the same perception. ``Prof. Nayyar actually resigned as economic adviser to the Narasimha Rao Government because he had serious differences with the (then Finance Minister) Dr. Manmohan Singh's fast track liberalisation policy,'' he said.

By that logic, a Left observer argued, all Leftists should be Dr. Joshi's friends, including those whom he threw out of the Indian Council of Historical Research and those whose works were summarily withdrawn from the press. For on globalisation, they have the same - if anything even stronger - views as Prof. Nayyar's, and Dr. Joshi's. How come they got the ``boot'' while Prof. Nayyar landed a plum job?

The ``rival'' version, doing the rounds today, was that Prof. Nayyar made it ``despite'' the king-makers in the HRD Ministry. Left academics gave credit to the Visitor for picking up the ``most progressive'' of the three candidates on the panel recommended by the search committee. Some were quick to see it as a ``victory'' for the liberal opinion: a case of celebrating prematurely, some thought.

It is after nearly three decades that Delhi University would have a professional economist as its Vice-Chancellor - the last was the distinguished Left economist, Dr. K. N. Raj who, for all his academic brilliance, had a tough time running the university. While Dr. Raj had problems with a militant students' body, Prof. Nayyar, with his enthusiasm for Government funding of higher education, may find himself battling the University Grants Commission which firmly believes the age of free lunches in universities is over.

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