Lutyens Media mischief over Fulbright-Nehru Scholarships

Shradha Singh, niticentral.com

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In what can be termed as utter careless and impetuous reporting by a few media houses, a legacy war was kicked up falsely by the media over alleged renaming of the “Fulbright-Nehru” scholarships, with some even claiming “severance” of Jawaharlal Nehru’s name from the prestigious program – all this while reality was something. 

The United States – India Educational Foundation (USIEF) today issued a statement clarifying that there was neither any change in the Fulbright-Nehru Fellowships nor were there any plans to ever change the name or administration of the program. 

Lutyens Media [see] played mischief

An article titled ‘Scholarship sheds Nehru’s name- Shift on Fulbright new projects’ published in The Telegraph, Calcutta on 26th October 2015 alleges that India and the US have “quietly decided to sever Jawaharlal Nehru’s name from new initiatives under one of the world’s best-known public diplomacy projects”, during the detailed Indo-US dialogue between Sushma Swaraj and John Kerry ahead of PM Narendra Modi’s visit to New York in September. ...  

What is the reality

Adam J Grotsky, Executive Director of US-India Educational Foundation (USIEF) on the Fulbright-Nehru Fellowships, in a statement, said:

“There are other programs being developed that do not fall under Fulbright-Nehru. Because they use different funding and have different partners they may have different names, but will still reflect the strong partnership between the American and Indian people.”

According to reports, the new scholarships initiated under the same financial-sharing agreement will now be called “Fulbright-India” fellowships instead.

Here is the text of the Joint Statement on the First U.S.-India Strategic and Commercial Dialogue which mentions a Fulbright- India Climate Fellowship.

Drawing on the academic and scientific cooperation that underpins the U.S.-India partnership, the Sides looked forward to launch a new Fulbright-India Climate Fellowship for capacity building in climate research between India’s Department of Science and Technology and the U.S. Department of State.

In February 1950 Jawahar Lal Nehru had signed a pact with then US ambassador here, Loy Henderson, allowing students of the two nations to study in each other’s universities. The global initiative was piloted by former US senator James William Fulbright, under which over 17,000 students have benefited since its inception.

Scholarships for India under Washington’s Fulbright programme were named the “Fulbright-Nehru” fellowships under a 2008 agreement with the then Manmohan Singh government’s  decision to match America’s bilateral contribution.