Academic Bhanu Prasad Mehta was on May 4 appointed as the next vice-chancellor of Ashoka University situated in Sonepat, Haryana. The second individual to lead the blooming varsity, Mehta has laid down the papers as the president and chief executive of the New Delhi-based policy think-tank Centre for Policy Research (CPR) to garner the post effective from July 1, 2017.
Mehta is one of India’s leading scholars and political scientists. Having worked extensively on political theory, intellectual history, constitutional law, politics and society in India, and international politics, he has taught at Harvard University, Jawaharlal Nehru University and the New York University School of Law before joining the CPR. He is also an editorial consultant in The Indian Express.
The scholar had been in news last year following his resignation from the executive council of Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, claiming that the institution’s reputation and integrity were being compromised after former bureaucrat Shakti Sinha’s name was allegedly shortlisted for the director’s post.
An outstanding public intellectual, Mehta has written extensively in The Indian Express—of which, he is an editorial consultant—and the Financial Times, The Telegraph, The Hindu and the International Herald Tribune. He is on the editorial board of several academic journals including the American Political Science Review, The Journal of Democracy, and India and Global Affairs.
Having served as the vice chancellor of Ashoka University since 2014, Professor Rudrangshu Mukherjee will be appointed as varsity’s next chancellor following the resignation of Professor Andre Beteille as his three-year tenure ends.
