In one month, on November 26th, the Latvian Academy of Sciences (LAS) will hold a plenary meeting, at which it is planned to discuss the possible resignation of the academy's president Ivars Kalviņš in connection with his recommendation to grant Latvian citizenship to Indian citizen Divya Kannan Vishwanath.
Last week, the academy's presidium, discussing the incident, concluded that Kalviņš acted in good faith, based on the information submitted to him.
The citizenship scandal surrounding the Latvian citizenship granted to and then withdrawn from Viswanath is widening, with several state institutions currently involved in investigating various circumstances. Meanwhile, scientists themselves point out that what happened significantly degrades the value of science in the eyes of society.
Already 75 members of the academy have requested that LAS President Ivars Kalviņš make public the full factual and documentary justification for supporting Viswanath's citizenship application.
"This has caused very significant damage to Latvian science in general from a reputational point of view, and to directly link it to the granting of citizenship is, I would say, even worse, because it also creates a bad impression of the value of Latvian citizenship," commented Gundars Bērziņš, rector of the University of Latvia (LU).
"I would say that trust has been significantly undermined. And I really hope that this independent analysis of both the publications and all the processes and procedures will provide an objective assessment, which will then be evaluated by the plenary assembly," said the rector of the University of Latvia.
"It's a funeral day for science... Obviously, those who did it, they just think the rest of us are fools," said Dagnija Blumberga, Director of the Institute of Environmental Protection and Heat Systems at Riga Technical University (RTU).
"What does a general meeting mean? ...The same people will simply gather at the general meeting. And I could even imagine that half of them don't want [to change the leadership]. That Kalviņš is such a good person," Blumberga added.
The State Revenue Service, the Prosecutor General's Office and the State Police are all looking at the circumstances surrounding the scandal, and the Minister of Internal Affairs has contacted the Citizenship and Migration Board and the Financial Intelligence Service, too.
Kalvins has indicated that he prepared his letter of recommendation based on information provided by the Academy of Sciences' cooperation partner SIA "LZA Institute of Economics" about Viswanath's academic education, scientific publications, and international research cooperation. The institute is headed by Nina Linde, a former advisor to the former Minister of Education Baiba Rivža (Greens and Farmers' Union/ZZS).
Rivža is now the Secretary General of the LAS. Linde too, previously ran in local elections for the ZZS.
On Monday evening, Latvian Television received an email from the Institute of Economics of the Latvian Academy of Sciences. Nina Linde is currently on sick leave, but she will be happy to answer questions as soon as she feels better.
As previously reported, On October 15th, the Saeima supported granting Latvian citizenship to Indian-born scientist Viswanath. Later, publications appeared on social media suggesting that the scientist may have provided false information about herself. A week later, on October 22nd, the Saeima urgently adopted a law revoking the previously granted Latvian citizenship.
Seen a mistake?
Select text and press Ctrl+Enter to send a suggested correction to the editor
Select text and press Report a mistake to send a suggested correction to the editor