The Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) today geared up for a fresh innings with a significant change of guard. A newcomer to the organisation, bureaucrat and India’s longest-serving permanent representative at the United Nations Chinmaya Gharekhan, was unanimously elected the president at the first meeting of the trust today.

Gharekhan was one of the three new people named on the reconstituted the IGNCA Trust last month.

Former president Kapila Vatsyan, who has been a trustee since the inception of the IGNCA in 1987 except for a brief period in between, did not even find place in the five-member executive committee that was constituted today at the meeting.

The biggest surprise of the day, however, was Dr Karan Singh’s resignation. He resigned as a trustree citing too many responsibilities in different organisations.

Today’s developments follow the reconstitution of the Trust last month which saw Gharekhan, Doon School Headmaster and international relations expert Kanti Bajpai, and former bureaucrat Anil Baijal being appointed as trustees in the place of some distinguished names like filmmakers Mrinal Sen and Adoor Gopalakrishnan, and sarod maestro Amjad Ali Khan.

The idea, as Culture Minister Ambika Soni had then explained, was to include people who could devote more time to the IGNCA and make it more effective.

The three new members, along with former foreign secretary Salman Haider, are also part of the executive committee. Explaining the change to The Indian Express, Soni said, “At some point of time in the future, the IGNCA would have to increase its interactions with other countries. We would like to see the IGNCA take its rightful place as the hub of cultural activities not only at the national level but also on the international stage.”

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