An ambitious plan of setting up the Nalanda University on the ruins of the ancient Nalanda, a great seat of learning in Buddhist philosophy and statecraft as perhaps the first residential international educational institution from 5th to 12th century off Patna, is besmirched with controversies even before it starts any academic courses.

The Ministry of External Affairs Ministry took over it as its baby since it has been conceptualised as an international university involving the 16 ASEAN countries like China, Japan, Australia, Korea and Thailand and made a sham of it, instead of letting it managed by the Human Resources Development Ministry having experience in the field of education.

It spent Rs 2.11 crores on meetings held by a "mentor group" constituted under the chairmanship of Prof. Amartya Sen in Singapore, Tokyo, New York, Delhi and Gaya to conceptualise establishment of the university and Parliament enacted the law for it in 2010 which was notified on September 22, 2010.

The controversy, however, erupted with the appointment of a "Vice Chancellor-designate" of the new university even before the Act was notified for its establishment and that too at a fantastic monthly salary of Rs 5 lakhs plus, which is more than the double salary of even Delhi University vice-chancellor.

The incumbent, Ms Gopa Sabharwal, appointed through an order issued by a secretary in MEA on the recommendation of the mentor group, is just a reader in the department of sociology in the Lady Sri Ram College here and nothing to do with the Buddhist studies for which the university is to be set up. She did not meet the mandatory qualification set by the University Grants Commission (UGC) for the vice-chancellors of the central and state universities to be distinguished academicians, with a minimum ten years of experience as a professor in a university system.

Questions are being asked as to who authorised the mentor group to recommend name of the first VC of the university and why the ministry accepted the single name without seeking a panel of names required for such an appointment. However, Minister of State of External Affairs E Ahamed flatly denied appointment of any such vice-chancellor of the Nalanda University when asked by a BJP MP Anil Dave in the Rajya Sabha on August 25.

Giving hoots to the government's recruitment rules that require public notice, Dr Sabharwal picked up her friend Dr Anjana Sharma, a collaborator in a book project and an associate professor in Delhi University, as the Officer-on-Special Duty (OSD) on deputation, with gross monthly salary of Rs 3.30 lakhs, which is more than the salary of even a vice-chancellor in India.

Neither anyone in the mentor group nor Dr Sabharwal has any background of Nalanda nor did they consult any Buddhist or Tibetan institutions well-versed with the Nalanda tradition and found nothing wrong in setting up headquarters of the university in a rented building in the R K Puram area of south Delhi in January this year. The Act specifically says the university's headquarters shall be in Nalanda district in Bihar but who cares. Obviously, the Delhi-bred Dr Sabharwal and her OSD Ms Sharma did not want to shift to a backward Nalanda.

The Standing Committee of the ministry says in its report just tabled in Parliament that the Nalanda project was estimated in 2007 to cost Rs 1005 crores and this may have to be revised and the same mentor group has now become the interim governing board of the University. In its very first meeting in February, this board nominated adviser committee to help out and two persons representing India in it are Ms Upinder Singh, daughter of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and her colleague Ms Nayanjot Lahiri, who are no expert on any aspect of the Nalanda tradition or history.

The Bihar Government has already acquired and transferred 446 acres of land in Rajgir, in the vicinity of the original Nalanda University site, but there seems nobody to monitor whether the new university will be living up to the reflected glory and really built in a contemporary form involving India and other East Asian countries as envisaged in it conceptualisation.