The Government had rushed to bestow the “Institute of Eminence” tag on the non-existent Reliance Jio Institute. But a year on, the Delhi-based National School of Drama (NSD), country’s premier theatre training institute, continues to await the tag of “Institute of National Importance” (INI) as the proposal in this regard is pending with the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
Expressing displeasure at the delay, a Parliamentary panel headed by Rajya Sabha member Derek O Brien has not only sought a status report on the issue but also asked the Union Culture Ministry to push for expediting the proposal.
The panel in its report, which was tabled in Parliament on December 14, noted that despite the NSD approaching the PMO several times, detailing its contributions to the theatre, art and cinema world to justify its request to be recognised as the INI, the later remained unimpressed.
In fact, with the PMO holding up the proposal, the NSD has also deferred its ambitious plan of opening new centres across the country.
Giving in detail the sequence of correspondence exchanged between the PMO and the NSD, the report said that a draft Bill provided by the NSD was re-drafted by the Union Culture Ministry taking into account present and future requirement, declaring Delhi-based NSD an INI and establish in future as well similar schools with an identical status.
The NSD is one of the foremost theatre training institutions in the world and the only one of its kind in India. It was set up by the Sangeet Natak Akademi as one of its constituent units in 1959. In 1975, it became an independent entity and was registered as an autonomous organisation, fully financed by the Union Culture Ministry.
The draft Cabinet note and draft Bill was prepared in consultation with Department of Legal Affairs and Legislative Department after approval from the Culture Minister and a copy of the note for Cabinet was forwarded to the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister for comments, said the report.
However, the PMO in its letter dated May 16, 2016 had returned the Cabinet note observing that the conferring of INI by way of Central Act is nothing but creation of a University by a Central legislation. The same purpose can also be served if the Institution gets a status of a ‘deemed University’, said the PMO.
It also argued that autonomy for the Institution may be more for the ‘Deemed University’ than the institution created by way of special Act which comes with certain conditionalities.
The PMO also advised the NSD to engage with Human Resource Development (HRD)/University Grants Commission (UGC) and reclaim its status as a ‘Deemed to be University’. The Cabinet Secretary after discussing the same on July 29, 2016 apparently dismissed the request, commenting that the NSD did not even need such a tag as it was itself a highly reputed organisation.
However, refusing to give in, the indomitable NSD Society in its meeting dated November 28, 2016 unanimously resolved to make persistent efforts to clinch the prestigious status considering NSD’s valuable contribution in the field of theatre and training.
“A delegation led by Prof Waman Kendre, Director, NSD also met Private Secretary (PS) to Prime Minister and apprised the position to him. A Cabinet Note for declaring the NSD as an INI was again forwarded to PMO via a note on May 3, 2017. But PMO sent it back on May 29, 2017 seeking more justification to the need of a new law. Reply to the same was conveyed to PMO on September 22, 2017,” the report said.
“After that”, noted the parliamentary panel, “no further communication in the matter received from PMO so far. The committee is unable to comprehend the delay in granting the status of INI to NSD”.
Curiously, while giving the go-ahead to the Reliance Jio institute as ‘Institute of Eminence’, a move which had sparked controversy, a selection committee’s report had said that “ Jio Institute’s proposal was well thought out, well presented, and taking an impressive multi-decade view of institution-building leveraging that promoter group’s known competencies in infrastructure building and the timely creation of new ventures”.
The NSD website says that training in the school is highly intensive and is based on a thorough, comprehensive, carefully planned syllabus which covers every aspect of theatre and in which theory is related to practice. As a part of their training, students are required to produce plays which are then performed before the public, as per the website.