Centre not interfering, says IIT-Kharagpur

At a time when Nobel laureate Amartya Sen has criticised the central government for interfering in academia, the IIT-Kharagpur director has said that the ministry of human resource development has not created any road blocks in its autonomy.

Recently, the Narendra Modi-led government courted controversy on the banning of a students' group at the IIT-Madras following allegations of criticising the prime minister and the central government.

The government said it had no role in banning even as opposition attacked it for curbing free speech.

However, IIT-Kharagpur director Partha Pratim Chakrabarti said there is no interference.

"We are getting what we want and as for budget cuts, we have talked to the ministry and we are hopeful for more grants," the director said here on Thursday.

In recent interviews, Amartya Sen has claimed that he was "ousted" from Nalanda University and accused the central government of interfering and exercising direct control over educational institutes where it has a formal role.

Sen has written about his exit from the University in a 4,000 word essay about to be published in the August issue of the New York Review of Books.

Last year, IIT-Delhi director Raghunath K. Shevgaonkar resigned halfway into his term in December last year, amid controversies over matters involving cricketer Sachin Tendulkar and BJP leader Subramanian Swamy even as the government sought to dispel reports that it had pressed him to quit.