NBT chief replacement raises many an eyebrow

“Why this hurry?” wonders A Sethu Madhavan, novelist, management expert and former chairman of South Indian Bank, who has been abruptly replaced as Chairman of the National Book Trust (NBT).

On Monday, the Centre appointed Baldev Sharma, former editor of RSS mouthpiece Panchajanyam , as NBT chief, cutting short the three-year term of Sethu, a Malayalam literary icon and Sahitya Akademi award winner, by six months.

“I was indirectly asked by a senior government official to resign, saying the government had found a suitable replacement,” Sethu told BusinessLine . “The message was loud and clear and I simply put in my papers.”

However, literary and cultural circles and the social media have not taken it lightly.

They point to what they say is the Centre’s unrelenting enthusiasm to pack all cultural, intellectual and educational institutions with Hindutva champions.

They draw parallels to similar instances in the Indian Council of Historical Research and the Censor Board.

“I understand the new government’s inclination to replace heads of government institutions,” Sethu said. “But, why this hurry? I had only six months left and in that time I could have completed the projects I had started.”

Sethu, 72, an icon in Malayalam literature, was picked by the then Union Minister Kapil Sibal to head the NBT in September 2012 not just because of his literary credentials but also because of his long experience in management and leadership.

He was general manager of Corporation Bank before taking over as chairman and CEO of South Indian Bank.

The NBT, created by Jawaharlal Nehru as a secular, progressive cultural institution to promote publishing in Indian languages, had turned into a typical government agency. Sibal had mandated Sethu to “energise” the NBT using his managerial background.

Sethu believes his main achievement at the NBT was turning the biennial New Delhi World Book Fair into a major annual event that showcased to the world India’s multi-lingual, multi-cultural literature and publishing. The latest one, which closed a fortnight ago, had attracted a million visitors.

The “rights table” at the fair was a set of virtual B2B meetings that facilitated publishing deals, he noted.

“My only concern is that a national cultural institution like the NBT should remain secular, democratic, liberal and above parochial considerations,” said Sethu while declining to comment on the political underpinnings of his removal.