Heritage plaque controversy: Guv says emotions & memories surrounding Tagore can’t be erased
With Visva Bharati University authorities already drawing flak for excluding Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore’s name from the heritage plaque to notify UNESCO’s decision to declare Santiniketan a World Heritage Site, the Bengal governor C V Ananda Bose on Wednesday too criticised the move and asserted that the emotions and memories surrounding the bard cannot be removed.
Speaking to the media at the sidelines of a programme, Bose, on Wednesday, said: “Tagore is a feeling, an emotion felt in the blood and heart of Indians. There cannot be any instance where Gurudev’s memory is obliterated or ignored. Gurudev enjoys the highest respect in the minds of all Indians.”
He is learnt to have made it clear that in no way he supports the move of excluding Tagore’s name from the plaque at the VBU campus. Bose is also the rector of the university. The Governor said that Tagore’s immense contribution is respected throughout the world and that the Nobel laureate must be given his due respect and love.
Trinamool Congress has already been staging a protest outside the university demanding for immediate removal of the plaques that only bear the name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chancellor of the varsity, and Bidyut Chakrabarty, the Vice-Chancellor. The party is demanding immediate installation of a plaque bearing the name of Tagore.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee has clarified that the move by VBU has insulted the bard and it is Tagore’s contribution which earned Santiniketan the heritage status. The Opposition BJP in the state has also criticised the move to exclude Tagore from the plaque. Both BJP leaders Suvendu Adhikari and Anupam Hazra have berated the V-C for the act, asking him to keep aside his ego and do the needful to save VBU from the embarrassment.
According to UNESCO website, “Santiniketan is an embodiment of Rabindranath Tagore’s vision and philosophy of where ‘the world would form a single nest’ using a combination of education, appreciation of nature, music and the arts.”
