Kolkata: The Visva Bharati University has show-caused seven professors for writing an open letter to President Droupadi Murmu requesting her to take urgent action to save the Central varsity from the alleged wrongdoings of Vice-Chancellor Bidyut Chakrabarty.
This letter from the university’s faculty association had come a day before Murmu reached Santiniketan to attend the university’s convocation programme held on Tuesday. The letter sent to the President mentioned the drop in the university’s position from 31 to 98 in the NIRF ranking and the poor grade received by the university in NAAC.
The seven show-caused professors are Sudipta Bhattacharya, Kousik Bhattacharya, Tathagata Chowdhury, Arindam Chakraborty, Samiran Saha, Rajesh KV and Sarat Kumar Jena.
The letter also mentioned that Chakrabarty’s “sole purpose” has been to “persecute and insult the stakeholders, particularly the faculty members”.
They had requested the President for urgent remedial action. It has been reported that the action taken against the seven professors was on disciplinary grounds as they had breached their service rules against the interest of the educational institute.
Recently, the Division Bench of Calcutta High Court upheld the decision of the Single Bench, which imposed a Rs 1 lakh fine on Chakrabarty pertaining to an incident that occured in 2021.