Intellectuals to protest against BJP's insult to economist Amartya Sen

Kolkata: Intellectuals from the city will hold a sit-in-demonstration in front of Bangla Academy on Sunday to protest against BJP's insult to Nobel laureate Professor a by dragging him to the controversy over holding plots in Visva Bharati.

Intellectuals, including Bratya Basu, Joy Goswami, Subodh Sarkar, Suvaprasanna, Jogen Chowdhury, Nrisingha Prasad Bhaduri and Arindam Sil are scheduled to take active part in the hour-long sit-in-demonstration, which will begin from 3 pm on Sunday.

According to sources, Kabir Suman has also been invited to be a part of the demonstration.

Controversy sparked off as the Visva Bharati — Chancellor of which is the Prime Minister himself — had written to the state government alleging that some of its plots were wrongly recorded in favour of some 'unauthorised occupants' and the list of such 'occupants' included Sen's name.

Reacting to the issue, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said: "Does anyone will ever believe that Amartya da, who has deep-rooted connection with the varsity, needs to encroach land to stay at Santiniketan? All such allegations have been raised because Sen does not believe in their (BJP's) ideology."

She also wrote the letter addressed to his Santiniketan residence — "Pratichi" — extending all support to Sen in this connection. She had stated in her letter that "Your maternal grandfather, the revered scholar Kshitimohan Sen, was one of the early leading settlers in Santiniketan, while your father Ashutosh Sen, a noted educationist and public administrator, had his famed house Pratichi built in Santiniketan about eight decades back. Yours have been a family weaved in the culture and fabric of Santiniketan, inalienably."

While addressing a Press conference at Nabanna on Thursday, the Chief Minister had also given a call to the intellectuals in the state to protest against BJP's insult to the Nobel laureate. All eyes will be on Bangla Academy to know what the intellectuals opine about such "vehement attack on the great personalities by the saffron brigade."