At the Maharaja Sayajirao University (MSU) of Baroda, Vadodara, some of his former colleagues say they were getting “feelers” for some time that Dr Manoj Soni would not complete his tenure at the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), although his sudden resignation from its top post came as a “surprise”.
Soni, 59, has quit as the UPSC chairman citing “personal reasons”, even though his tenure would end in 2029.
Considered close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Soni joined the UPSC as its member on June 28, 2017 and took oath as its chairperson on May 16, 2023.
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An alumnus of the MSU where he did his BA and MA in Political Science in the 1980s, specialising in International Relations, Soni tendered his resignation as the UPSC chief about a month back, and “expects to be relieved by July 31”, a senior central government official told The Indian Express.
“His (Soni’s) resignation is not at all connected with the current controversy surrounding the IAS probationer Puja Khedkar, and is only an unfortunate coincidence”, the official claimed.
Khedkar is facing a criminal case for faking her identity to fraudulently avail attempts in the civil services examination, which has triggered a massive political controversy in the country.
Soni’s former classmates at the Political Science Department at MSU remember him as a “soft-spoken, well-mannered and hard-working student, with a subtle way of doing things”, who would always be in a “khadi shirt” with a “red tilak” emblazoned on his forehead. However, Soni’s academic and spiritual pursuits remained in the Charotar region of Central Gujarat comprising the districts of Anand and Kheda – home to wealthy NRIs.
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Born in Mumbai, Soni lost his father at an early age, after which he and his mother Jayshreeben joined the non-profit organisation Anoopam Mission, a breakaway outfit of Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan (BAPS) Sampraday in Vallabh Vidyanagar, Anand district.
The Mission runs several activities in the fields of education, healthcare, community service and disaster relief, whose centres are established in India as well as overseas. It is headed by Jashbhai Patel known as “Saheb” in the Mission.
Soni was said to have taken “monkhood” in 2020. He is now expected to return to the Mission and might “eventually lead it” as Jashbhai’s successor, sources told The Indian Express.
Soni started teaching at the Department of Political Science in Sardar Patel University (SPU) in Anand district in 1991. The SPU website shows his period of service till 2016.
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It was under his supervision at the University Grants Commission-funded Sardar Vallabhbhai Centre at SPU that a symposium was organised soon after the Gujarat riots that followed the Godhra train burning in 2002. The symposium was titled “In Search of a Third Space: Beyond Godhra Carnage and its Aftermath”. The speeches in Gujarati delivered at the symposium — organised by Bhaikaka Adhyayayan Ekam Prakalp, a Chair funded by the Gujarat government – were seen as a defence of Hindus, and were translated into English and compiled by Soni, Late Javed Hussain Khan, then professor and head of the English Department, and Late Prof RC Desai, then secretary of Charutar Vidya Mandal (CVM).
Sources say it was around this time that Soni became close to Anandiben Patel, who was then the Education Minister in the BJP-led Gujarat government led by Chief Minister Narendra Modi. Patel, currently Uttar Pradesh Governor, was said to be behind Soni’s “meteoric rise”.
Soni went on to become the youngest Vice-Chancellor of MSU in 2005, at the age of 40. “Soni was among those seen as the intellectual support for the Modi government at the time,” says a senior professor.
But his term as the V-C was marked by a major controversy faced by MSU in 2007 when a student of Fine Arts from Andhra Pradesh, Chandra Mohan, was booked in a criminal case after Hindu and Christian activists launched protests against his artwork on display at an exhibition meant for internal evaluation, alleging it insulted their gods. The then acting dean of the Fine Arts Faculty Shivaji Panikkar, who defended Mohan, was suspended. “Several in the university were unhappy with Soni’s decision to suspend Panikkar and probably, seeing the sentiment building against him, he was not awarded a second term as V-C after his term ended in 2008,” says a senior MSU professor.
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Soni was appointed the V-C of the Babasaheb Ambedkar Open University (BAOU) based in Ahmedabad, for two terms, till 2015.
Retired Prof HC Shukul who taught Soni at the Political Science Department at MSU, recalls how once when their cook at home did not turn up, Soni brought food from the hostel mess for his family. “He worked hard to rise,” says Shukul, who taught International Relations at the department and was its head.
The MSU Political Science Department’s current head Prof Amit Dholakia says, “He (Soni) is a nice human being and his integrity as Vice-Chancellor (MSU) was unquestionable.”
Dholakia, who also studied Political Science with Soni, calls him “tech savvy”. “Especially as BAOU V-C, he would be seen carrying a tablet when technology was not popular and introduced use of audio-visual content and developed A-V tools for teaching,” he says.
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In 2008, Soni was named a member of Justice R J Shah Fee Regulatory Committee, constituted by the Gujarat Legislature for regulating fee structure of un-aided professional institutions in the state.
In 2009, he became a member of the governing body of a private university, Charotar University of Sciences and Technology at Changa, Anand and a founder coordinator of the Center for Excellence in Ethics in Politics and Public Administration, funded by the Gujarat government.
Soni’s doctoral research is on the “Post-Cold War International Systemic Transition and Indo-U.S. Relations” under his guide Prof Harbans Patel of SPU, which he completed in 1995. “This is one of the earliest and one-of-its-kind studies during 1992 and 1995. It attempted to explain the post-Cold War systemic transition through a conceptual framework that has potent predictive capabilities”, as per the UPSC website. The work was later published as a book, “Understanding the Global Political Earthquake”.
In 2013, Soni was conferred with the honour of “Honorary Mayor-President of the City of Baton Rouge” by the Mayor-President of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, U.S.A., “for his exemplary leadership in empowering disadvantaged sections of society with IT literacy”, according to the UPSC.
Soni has served on the Boards of Governors of several institutions of higher education and public administration in the past.
Currently, the eight-member UPSC has two more members with roots in Gujarat – IAS officer from the 1988 batch BB Swain, and former chairman of the Gujarat Public Service Commission (GPSC) Dinesh Dasa.
Soni’s wife Prutha, who is also an SPU alumnus, teaches Life Sciences at a college in Nadiad. Their son is pursuing a Law degree in Gandhinagar.
