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Controversial Visva Bharati plaques with names of Modi, ex-VC removed
The omission of Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore, who founded Visva Bharati in 1921, from the plaques triggered an uproar in October
The plaques with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Visva Bharati’s then vice-chancellor Bidyut Chakrabarty’s names on the university campus in Bengal’s Santiniketan have been removed. They were put up to mark Santiniketan’s inclusion on the UNESCO World Heritage list without mentioning Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore, who founded Visva Bharati in 1921.
Tagore’s omission triggered an uproar in October. The plaques were removed late on Wednesday days after acting vice chancellor Sanjoy Kumar Mallik on November 20 said they would be replaced. He earlier visited Delhi to discuss the matter with Union education ministry officials.
No Visva Bharati official commented on the removal of the plaques.
Chakrabarty, who had the controversial plaques installed, retired on November 8. “The [acting] vice-chancellor has also been advised that the installation of the official text of the statement for the UNESCO recognizing Santiniketan as a heritage site, is of immediate priority,” Visva Bharati said in a statement on November 20.
Visva Bharati formed a committee to vet the final draft of the Bengali, Hindi, and English versions of the texts for the new plaques. The names of Modi, who is the university chancellor, and Chakrabarty are not on the new plaques.
“The text follows the pattern in which UNESCO describes world heritage sites in its records. The focus is on the history of Santiniketan, Tagore, and Visva Bharati,” an official said. The Bengali text appears first, followed by the English and Hindi versions.
Controversies and litigations marred Chakrabarty’s five-year term. Police questioned him after his retirement in connection with five criminal complaints lodged against him for allegedly defaming Bengali culture and hurting public sentiments.
