On April 5, the Narendra Modi government announced the appointment of Manoj Soni as the chairman of the Union Public Service Commission.
Soni had been vice-chancellor of the MS University in Baroda and the Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Open University, Ahmedabad. He was made a member of the UPSC in May 2017.
However, his appointment has not been well received, with activists accusing him of links to the RSS. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi tweeted on Monday “Union Pracharak Sangh Commission.
India’s Constitution is being demolished, one Institution at a time.” Rahul tweeted a screenshot of an article in The Wire on Soni's purported ties to the RSS and BJP.
Soni has been associated with the Swaminarayan sect in Gujarat. “A scholar of political science, Soni taught international relations at Sardar Patel University (SPU), Vallabh Vidyanagar between 1991 and 2016, except for when he served as vice-chancellor of two universities, MSU, Vadodara between 2005 and 2008, and Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Open University (BAOU) in Ahmedabad between August 2009 and July 2015,” The Times of India reported last week.
Soni was reported to be a speech writer for Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his time as Gujarat chief minister.