Only Modi can explain: What does Chetan Chauhan know about fashion technology?

The dust is yet to settle over the Udta Punjab controversy which resulted from placing a person of questionable integrity and impartiality at the head of the censor board. But the undeterred government has invited another controversy by appointing Chetan Chauhan, the ex-cricketer and two-time BJP MP, as the head of National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT).

The appointment has raised several eyebrows and justifiably so. It's another instance of the Modi government fanning trouble when it can do well without it. Chauhan's appointment raises several contentious questions which have been dealt with below:

1. What is Chetan Chauhan's competence in fashion technology?

That Chauhan was a fine cricketer is not difficult to understand. But what is difficult to understand is, how does being a good cricketer make him qualified to head India's most prestigious fashion technology institution? For all we know, Chauhan and fashion are as different as chalk and cheese. In the absence of any association with the world of fashion, it's but obvious his is a political appointment in which talent and competence have been sacrificed at the altar of rewarding political loyalty.

How can the government be so casual about selecting heads of institutions which have such profound implications for the nation's culture? Surely, the government could have found dozens of people who have devoted their lives to fashion technology. But by overlooking merit and competence, the government has exposed its contempt for meritocracy.

How will Chauhan be able to guide the institute and provide it a vision when he has a shallow, or no understanding of the fashion industry, its many challenges, and its untapped potential? Why is the government crippling the fashion industry by undermining the top institute for producing the designers of tomorrow?

When Narendra Modi became the prime minister in 2014, he had promised to do away with the system of distributing offices based on loyalty and replace it with a meritocratic system in which one's competence and not sycophancy is considered for selection for top posts. Now every selection in which talent is overshadowed by loyalty makes a mockery of the trust people reposed in such a promise.

The message for the common man who doesn't know people in power is clear: it's not in our fate to reach the top as under this government, selection for top posts is made on the basis of who you know rather than what you have achieved.

The constitutional promise of equal opportunity will remain a pipe dream as long as a BJP MP who is a novice in an industry continues to be catapulted to its top because of political patronage while many others who have spent their entire careers contributing to the industry are neglected as they are not shrewd enough to get in the good books of the politicians.

2. DDCA bungling up has been rewarded instead of being punished

Chauhan, apart from being a BJP MP, is also the vice president of the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA)- the cricket body that has gained notoriety for its mismanagement and corruption. Chauhan has inherited his post from people who have been under the scanner and has defended them loyally throughout. Under him, the DDCA's much-publicised mismanagement has continued unabated, so much so that courts were forced to interfere and appoint the Mudgal committee to look into the DDCA mess.

Now whether or not Chauhan himself has been involved in the many illegalities that took place and continue unabated in the DDCA is for courts to decide, but the mismanagement under his leadership is undeniable. So a person who heads a malfunctioning institution and has done a less than satisfactory job is now being rewarded with an important post instead of being held accountable for the misdeeds? What justice is this?

3. Unreasonable obstinacy and provocation

The Modi government has been particularly obstinate about appointing undeserving people as the heads of important institutions. It appointed Gajendra Chauhan to the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) and had to face student protests that didn't do any good to its credibility.

The government's appointee to the post of the censor board chief, Pahlaj Nihalani has also brought it much shame and made the government a laughing stock. The government's choice of heads of different education and cultural bodies such as the Indian Council Of Historical Research (ICHR) has also alienated it from the section which is truly concerned about these fields.

But alas, the government just doesn't seem to be in any mood to learn from the past where shoddy appointments have inevitably dwindled its political capital. Instead, the government seems inclined to make even more such questionable appointments making one wonder whether the government enjoys the confrontation its provoking.

This needless confrontation makes for partisan politics, but it surely is a deterrent to governance.

4. A dearth of talent in the ranks of ruling party

The government's repeated appointment of incompetent persons also brings out a talent crunch within the ranks of the BJP. While this government like every other is inclined to appoint its stooges to important positions, this government is exceptional in not being able to find even moderately acceptable and qualified stooges. If it wants a historian of its choice to head the ICHR, fine, but it should at least have a proper historian, not a half historian like it has currently.

That the government cannot find enough loyal, yet competent individuals is again reflected in the Modi government's inability to drop the non-performers in the cabinet. Chauhan's appointment is a reaffirmation of this persisting problem of dearth of talent in the ruling party.

Chauhan's appointment to the NIFT is wrong at so many levels as discussed above. His appointment is another case in which a government whose over-confidence borders on arrogance is shooting itself in the foot. It won't be too long before it discovers that even the most powerful of regimes can't fare well committing such harakiri with unmistakable regularity. The question now is, will the government mend its ways before its too late?