Two-term BJP MP and Vice President of the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA), 68-year-old Chetan Chauhan is the latest Chauhan to court controversy after being appointed the new chairman of the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT). While the government is facing flak online over a cricketer with banking experience being appointed as Chairman of India’s premiere fashion institute, Chauhan is no anomaly.
The court of public opinion may have pronounced its verdict against the appointment , but history shows that NIFT hasn’t been led by anyone from the fashion industry since its inception in 1986.
The Quint spoke to NIFT faculty and some ex-students to understand how the appontment affects them.
Also Read: Twitter Can’t Get Enough of Chetan Chauhan as NIFT’s New Chairman
NIFT Chairperson: A Rubber Stamp
The tenure of the NIFT Chairperson is three years and a bureaucrat or ministry official is usually appointed to chair the board. A senior faculty member on the condition of anonymity said that it has never affected academics:
There are clear lines between academia and administration at NIFT, so it really doesn’t matter. This is all media drama. I mean look at the previous appointments, they have all been political in some way or another and it has never affected the curriculum or quality of a NIFT product.
Previous Chairs of NIFT Board of Governors:
- Kiran Dhingra, Textile Secretary & Retired IAS Officer
- Thiru Venu Srinivasan, Chairman TVS Motor & MD Sundaram Clayton
- DP Singh, Bureaucrat
- R Poornalingam, Textile Secretary & Retired IAS Officer
Another faculty member, however said:
It would obviously be better to have someone from the industry who understands what the industry needs. But department heads are quite autonomous when it comes to academic decisions. There haven’t been diktats from the Chairman, at least not yet!
Much Ado About Nothing?
The NIFT Act
The NIFT Act 2006 says that the Chairperson of the Board of Governors should be an academician, scientist, technologist or professional. But even post 2006, either bureaucrats or business heads have been at the helm.
The NIFT board takes administrative and financial decisions for the institute and appoints senior academic and administrative staff. A senior head of department at NIFT Delhi also added that the board usually takes into consideration recommendations of the senior faculty and heads when it comes to academic decisions and syllabus.
The Current Board
The current NIFT board comprises of prominent members from varied backgrounds: Members of Parliament, Joint Secretaries of the Textile Ministry, members of the BJP and prominent members of the textile industry and universities. The Chairman of Fashion Design Council of India seems to be the only member with a fashion background on the entire board.
So Does NIFT Need Someone From Fashion?
Alumni and designers like Rina Dhaka have questioned the appointment and said it would be better to have someone from the industry head NIFT. But many former students and faculty say it doesn’t affect the day-to-day functioning.
Further, NIFT graduates added that they never met or interacted with the Chairman, except on graduation day. One even said she didn’t know who the Chairman was while she was a student. Another NIFT graduate said:
The faculty, especially the different department heads, function with a great deal of autonomy, or so it seemed to us. At the student level, it made no difference who the chairperson was. A person from the fashion industry would be better perhaps, but we never interacted or dealt with them.NIFT Graduate, Batch of 2012
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