With the Ministry of Human Resource Development seeking withdrawal of controversial plaques at Visva-Bharati University, a section of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders from West Bengal are hinting at the move as a “damage control and course correction” ahead of Lok Sabha polls next year.
A row had erupted with the Visva-Bharati University administration putting up plaques at the University to commemorate the inclusion of Santiniketan as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The plaque had the name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi as ‘Acharya Chancellor ‘ and Bidyut Chakraborty as ‘Upacharya Vice-Chancellor’, but had no mention of Rabindranath Tagore, who founded the institution. Three plaques were put up in the university premises after Santiniketan got the UNESCO tag on September 17.
BJP national secretary Anupam Hazra said that the controversy around the plaques was “unwarranted” and it gave Trinamool Congress an opportunity to hold protests in the university and target the BJP and the Prime Minister.
“The former Vice-Chancellor, Bidyut Chakrabarty, may have had a personal agenda behind putting up the plaques. But in doing so he maligned the BJP leadership and the office of Prime Minister who is the Chancellor of the University. There are no consent from the Prime Minister’s Officer to set up such plaques at the university” Mr. Hazra told The Hindu.
The BJP leader, who had represented Birbhum’s Bolpur Constituency as a Trinamool Congress MP from 2014-19, said that the move by the Centre also hints at a “damage control”. “The decision by the Centre to have fresh plaques with the name of Rabindranath Tagore is the correct decision,” Mr. Hazra said.
The tenure of Mr. Chakrabarty as Vice-Chancellor of the university came to an end on November 8 and an officiating V-C Sanjoy Kumar Mallik took charge of the university administration.
The regime of Prof. Chakrabarty was marked with controversy, including that involving another Nobel laureate professor Amartya Sen. The Visva-Bharati was embroiled in a legal tussle with Prof. Sen claiming that the economist had illegally acquired a portion of land on which his ancestral house Pratichi was built.
Not only Mr. Hazra but some of the BJP candidates who contested polls in and round Bolpur region had complained that the stand taken by the former Vice-Chancellor had political repercussions. A section of State BJP leadership feels that since the Prime Minister is the Chancellor of the University, every controversy at the university was believed to have sanctioned the top leadership of the BJP.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had on several occasions targeted the Visva-Bharati administration and directed party supporters to hold protests.
Mr. Hazra, who has completed his education from Visva-Bharati and taught at the central university before taking a plunge in politics, said that certain leaders of the West Bengal BJP should not have backed the former Vice-Chancellor in certain decisions that did not go with ethos of the institution.
“Some (BJP) leaders are not aware of the sentiments relating to Santiniketan and Visva-Bharati and thus they cannot understand that their remarks could be misinterpreted,” the BJP national secretary said.
Mr. Hazra also added that he was in touch with Visva-Bharati administration over holding Poush Mela and Bastanta Utsav celebrations at the university which were stopped over the past few years during the regime of former Vice-Chancellor. Both Poush Mela and Basanta Utsav celebrations draw large crowds at Santiniketan.
