KOLKATA: Amid the imbroglio surrounding the installation of a heritage plaque at Visva Bharati University (VBU) to notify Santiniketan’s UNESCO World Heritage Status, BJP seems to have adopted the discourse set off by TMC in criticising the vice-chancellor (V-C) of the University for excluding the Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore’s name from the plaque.
TMC has been staging an agitation outside the varsity following the instructions of Mamata Banerjee who said it will continue till the authorities of this Central government institution decide to remove the plaques bearing the names of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chancellor of the varsity, and Bidyut Chakrabarty, the V-C. She demanded that a plaque dedicated to Tagore be instead installed since the bard’s immense contribution to Santiniketan is what led it to earn the heritage status. However, on Monday, the BJP leader Anupam Hazra, chose to criticise the V-C through a social media post. Alluding to Chakrabarty, Hazra wrote on X that the V-C has decimated all principles of Tagore and failed to understand the essence of Santiniketan. He alleged that Bidyut has only understood his cosy seat in the V-C post which he hinted must now go. Hazra said that Tagore needs to be loved unconditionally to understand the bard’s philosophy. He also took a dig at Bidyut for his alleged attempt to curb Poush Mela and Holi.
The V-C in a letter to Mamata on Sunday demanded that the state government give back control of the 3km road that passes through the institution which was taken away by the state later.
Additionally, he made “political remarks” by asking Mamata to open her eyes and not view the world through the eyes of her party leaders and ministers, of whom many are lodged in jail for corruption. Such remarks drew flak from the ruling party whose spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said the statements are unbecoming of a V-C who seems to have conveniently shut his eyes to the corruption and violence in BJP-ruled states.