The Hindu : New Delhi News : A national mission caught in a turf war

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Wednesday, Mar 07, 2007
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New Delhi

A national mission caught in a turf war

Mandira Nayar

Bank account of National Mission for Manuscripts frozen by IGNCA

NEW DELHI: The National Mission for Manuscripts is caught in a turf war between the Union Culture Ministry and the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA).

Birthday

Barely a month after the Mission celebrated its fourth birthday in grand style, the bank account it held with the IGNCA has been frozen. With over a crore of payments pending, employees of the Mission have gone without their salary for the month of February and all its projects have come to a grinding halt.

This move is being viewed by observers here as IGNCA's attempt to get back at being reduced to a postal address for the Mission — it was to be the nodal agency when it was formed — but IGNCA maintains the shutting down of the account had nothing to do with the Mission.

"The IGNCA has frozen its own account. It has nothing do to with the NMM. It was a bank account the IGNCA doesn't use. No institution that NMM has worked with has ever been paid through IGNCA. The NMM is an autonomous organisation and should have its own bank account. The Government has made it autonomous, it says so in all its publications. The IGNCA are not responsible for the financial problems that NMM may have,'' said an IGNCA staff member.

While the IGNCA may take comfort in technicalities to prove its point, the current situation has become a crisis for an institution that has made a significant contribution to saving heritage that been ignored so far, point out experts. The freezing of the account at the end of a financial year is too much of a coincidence for the matter to be just a simple case of setting the record straight, say experts, especially as the IGNCA was strapped for funds and the Mission had been sanctioned large sums over the years.

"Petty politics"

"It is petty politics. What else is it? The NMM has been too effective and that is the reason it is being targeted. The Mission was formed by the Government for a specific goal and has managed to do a lot. But it is now being penalised for being good at what it does. Why else would they suddenly shut down the account?'' asked a conservationist who has worked with the Mission.

The Ministry of Culture, which is at the centre of the controversy, admits that there was a problem and it is being handled. The director of the Mission, Sudha Gopalakrishnan, was unavailable for comment, but Neha Paliwal of the Mission said: "This is a matter between the Ministry of Culture and the IGNCA."

The IGNCA may deny any "politics'' behind the freezing of the account, but, it is pointed out, it sent a detailed note to the Ministry of Culture pointing out that the Mission had overstepped its original mandate and had disassociated itself from the IGNCA. In the note, the IGNCA is believed to have pointed out that the Mission had been using the IGNCA as a resource centre rather than the nodal authority. It has also frowned upon its "independence'' as it has been shown as an independent autonomous organisation by the Central Department of Culture.

Petty politics

However, IGNCA employees hint that there is more at stake in this issue. "This may seem like petty politics, but there is more to it than meets the eye. It is simply not a matter about an account. The truth will eventually come out,'' asserted an IGNCA staff member on Tuesday.

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