An official release of the institute took strong exception to reports alleging that the IIAS had scrapped the lecture of Amartya Sen and replaced him with Murli Manohar Joshi. ``The institute hereby places on record that name of Amartya Sen did not figure at all in the deliberations of the governing body meeting on October 15 last''.

The release, which apparently had been issued on instructions of IIAS chairman G.C. Pande, however, says that Amartya Sen was sent invitations for the lecture twice in 1998 but he had himself written back to the institute director Mrinal Miri conveying his pre-occupations. Later M, M.G.K.Menon, former scientific advisor to the Prime Minister was asked to deliver the lecture in place of Amartya Sen. This time there was no proposal to re-invite him for 1999 lecture.

Meanwhile, S.S.K.Gupta, a senior academician and member of the IIAS Society today strongly defended governing body's decision to invite Joshi for the Radha Krishnan memorial lecture saying that the Union HRD Minister had been a distinguished professor at Allahabad University. He recalled that the IIAS earlier had also invited D.P.Chatopadhaya and M.G.K.Menon, both noted academicians and union ministers in 1991 and 1998 respectively. ``Why impute now too many meanings to the invitation to Joshi, when no one had raised even a single voice of dissent then,'' he questioned.

Reliable sources said the governing body of the IIAS had taken a decision to hold annual lecture in the memory of M. Ananthasayanan Ayyaangar, a former Lok Sabha Speaker and known freedom fighter in Chennai next March and invite former President of India R Venkataraman for delivering the lecture. This decision was also taken in the same meeting which the governing body had approved for inviting Joshi for Radhakrishnan memorial lecture.