The Visva-Bharati University has called “absolutely wrong and ridiculous” and “politically motivated” the voices being raised against the placing of two plaques in Santiniketan to mark the heritage area of the campus. These plaques mention Chancellor Narendra Modi and Vice-Chancellor Bidyut Chakrabarty but not founder Rabindranath Tagore, something that detractors of the Vice-Chancellor term as “self-advertisement”.
“These plaques are absolutely temporary. They have been placed to demarcate the heritage area, and they carry the names of the Chancellor and the Vice-Chancellor purely for authentication. The two names are meant to show that Visva-Bharati owns the place — nobody should wonder who put up these plaques,” a senior Visva-Bharati official told The Hindu on Wednesday.
“These will be replaced as soon as ASI (Archaeological Survey of India) hands over formal plaques to us. What the ASI gives us will have to get UNESCO approval, which is likely to take time, maybe a year. It is unlikely what the ASI gives us will bear any person’s name, because that’s not how UNESCO usually describes a heritage site,” the official, who did not want to be named, said.
