Kolkata: Trinamool Congress (TMC) national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Saturday condemned the way the name of Nobel laureate Amartya Sen has been dragged into politics, thereby giving a new twist to the ongoing controversy in which Visva Bharati University had accused Sen of land grab.
“Nobel laureate Sen was attacked after he praised Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and said she has the ability to become the Prime Minister. It is a matter of shame the way a world-renowned personality has been dragged into the controversy,” Abhishek, addressing the media at Diamond Harbour, said on Saturday.
“They cannot digest the fact that Sen has praised Mamata Banerjee. The way Sen has been attacked is shameful and is also painful to all of us. Some people from Bengal, including Dilip Ghosh, are batting for Gujarat and Delhi forgetting Bengal and its people,” he said, adding: “Bengal neither lowered its head in the past nor will do so in future. If some people think that they will attack Sen only because Delhi (Centre) has prompted them to do so or they will attack the Bengal Chief Minister or people of the state or they will stop clearing the dues to teach a lesson to the people here for ousting them in every single poll, they (Centre) will become history.” The Noble laureate on Friday reacted to the Visva Bharati University’s allegation saying that “there are certain people in New Delhi who don’t like me due to disagreement of opinion.”
A major row erupted after Visva Bharati University Vice-Chancellor Bidyut Chakraborty claimed that Sen did not receive the Nobel Prize at all and also alleged that over 13 decimals of land has been occupied by the economist.
In a fresh missive to the Nobel laureate, Visva Bharati University on Friday asked him to immediately hand over parts of a plot he was allegedly occupying in an “unauthorised manner” in Santiniketan. This was the second such letter from the Central university to the noted economist in the past three days.
Sen had earlier asserted that most of the land he is holding in the Santiniketan campus was purchased from the market by his father while some other plots were taken on lease.
“Kindly return the land to Visva Bharati as early as possible since the application of the laws of the land will cause embarrassment to you and also to Visva Bharati which you endear so much,” the letter dated January 27 stated.
Four days ago, a letter signed by the deputy registrar of the university to Sen said: “It has been found from records and physical survey/demarcation that you are in unauthorised occupation of 13 decimals of land belonging to Visva Bharati…”.
To the query, if the BJP-run Centre has any role in the entire row, Sen had said: “I won’t talk about politics.” There have been allegations from certain quarters that the university’s actions may be politically motivated given the fact that Sen has been critical of many Central government policies.
Incidentally, there is a postcard featuring the name of Nobel laureate Amartya Sen among the top 25 Nobel laureates kept at the Nobel Prize Museum in Stockholm alongside Rabindranath Tagore and Mother Teresa.