CPR Chief Yamini Ayer Steps Down Days After Criticizing Modi Government (image-twitter/AiyarYamini)
Yamini Ayer, the president and CEO of the Centre for Policy Research (CPR) will step down from her current role on March 31. The announcement was made days after her article criticizing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s governance was published in the Economic Times.
The think tank announced on Tuesday the decision stating her reason for the sudden stepping down to “devote more time to her research interests”.
Srinivas Chokkakula, senior fellow at CPR and Ministry of Jal Shakti research chair will take over the position as the president and CEO from April 1. Yamini has been a consistent policy critic of the Narendra Modi government.
In the opinion column published on March 23, Aiyar wrote under the title, “Yamini Aiyar laments the damage done to Indian democracy under Narendra Modi”, “A dark shadow of creeping authoritarianism looms over India as it prepares for its 18th general election”.
She then emphasized that the Narendra Modi government is set to clinch power for the third term. However, she wrote, “his governance, built on aggressive centralisation, legitimised by a cult of personality and undergirded by an exclusionary Hindu-nationalist ideology, is eroding India’s democracy”.
In January, the government has earlier canceled the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) license of the 50-year-old think tank. Many prominent public intellectuals and research scholars have been associated with the organization for decades. The government has alleged a violation of the foreign funding law.
The board in its statement added, “The Board expresses its appreciation for her excellent and significant contribution to CPR’s tradition of engaged multidisciplinary scholarship and for the energy, commitment, and sense of purpose she brought to her role during her tenure. We wish her the very best in her future endeavours.”
Over the past nine years, the Modi government has tried to tighten the rules and procedures for NGOs to receive and use foreign funds. The government has then canceled the FCRA licenses of hundreds of NGOs on the charge of violating the law’s provisions.
