New Delhi: The Union culture ministry has barred the chairman of India’s national academy of fine arts, Lalit Kala Academy, from taking any administrative actions including on matters related to “appointment, recruitment, transfer, disciplinary action and financial decisions”, without consulting the ministry, the Indian Express reported.
Nagdas (64), a painter and printmaking artist from Kerala, who was appointed as the chairman of the academy on March 13 last year, still has two more years left in his term.
According to the Indian Express, officials in the ministry said the order was sent “in view of certain decisions taken by the chairman.”
In an order issued on January 8, 2024, the ministry cited Nagdas’s failure to respond to an earlier “complaint” while alleging non-compliance with the ministry’s “administrative directions”.
“As per right of the central government mentioned in rule 19(1) of General Rules and Regulations of LKA, you are hereby directed not to take any administrative actions including appointment, recruitment, transfer, disciplinary actions and financial decisions without the concurrence of Ministry of Culture,” the order, signed by Suman Bara, under secretary, Ministry of Culture said.
According to the report, the chairman is supposed to officiate on all these matters.
Before assuming the post of chairman at the academy, Nagdas served as a professor, dean, and head of the department of graphics in the Visual Arts Faculty, Indira Kala Sangeet Vishwavidyalaya in Chhattisgarh’s Khairagarh.
Under his chairmanship, the academy presented two exhibitions — ‘Imag(in)ing the Immediate – Curating from a National Collection’ and ‘The Afghan Journal’ — in addition to announcing a mega art camp in Ayodhya in the run-up to the Ram Temple inauguration which didn’t materialise due to “funding issues”, the paper reported.
In an interview expressing gratitude for the opportunity to serve the artist community as chairman last year, Nagdas had said, “This is a three-year term. It is an honorary post assigned by the President of India. I got a chance to do something for the artist community. I have introduced many new centres — Ahmedabad, Shimla, Patna, Dharwad (not finalised but in the pipeline).”
Within two months of taking charge, Nagdas had conducted around eight workshops in different parts of the country and was planning to conduct an Art Triennial in 2025 at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi, according to the New Indian Express.
