Chandrakala Padia (born 1954)[1] is a retired professor of political science from Banaras Hindu University.
She has served as the vice chancellor of Maharaja Ganga Singh University, and as the first woman chairperson of Indian Institute of Advanced Study.
[5] Padia has been noted for her close affiliations with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
[6][7][8] In 2015, Suneel Verma, the Secretary of the Indian Institute of Advanced Study (IIAS), resigned from his position following a standoff with Chairperson Chandrakala Padia.
Days before his resignation, Verma had on July 16 written to the IIAS director Pof Chetan Singh, complaining against the “authoritarian, prejudiced, biased and irrational attitude” of the chairperson, raising of issues which are “very petty and personal in nature and have nothing to do with the betterment of the Institute” and involving issues like the “non functioning of telephones at the Delhi Camp office and regarding the inconvenience caused to her guests at the Delhi Camp Office accommodation".