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Day before retirement, Visva-Bharati V-C summoned by Bengal cops in plaque case
Bidyut Chakrabarty also wrote a five-page letter to chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday that made sarcastic remarks about her writings and paintings
KOLKATA: Bidyut Chakrabarty, whose five-year term as vice-chancellor (V-C) of Visva-Bharati, West Bengal’s only Central university, ended on Wednesday, was summoned by Santiniketan police station in Birbhum district in connection with the complaint lodged against him for installing stone plaques marking the inclusion of Santiniketan township in the UNESCO world heritage list.
“The notice, asking Chakrabarty to appear before the investigating officer on November 14, was served on Tuesday,” Kasturi Mukherjee Chatterjee, officer-in-charge of Santiniketan police station, told HT.
Chakrabarty, who demitted office on Wednesday afternoon and was succeeded by officiating vice-chancellor Sanjoy Kumar Mallik, a professor of art history at Visva-Bharati’s Kala Bhavana, did not comment on the summon notice.
The police case is linked to the plaques installed on the open-air campus that bear the names of Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the university’s acharya (chancellor) and Chakrabarty but don’t mention Rabindranath Tagore who founded Visva-Bharati at his father’s ashram in 1921. Tagore moved to Santiniketan around 1900, five years before his father’s death.
The Santiniketan Trust, which was set up in 1888 by the Nobel laureate’s father, Maharshi Debendranath Tagore, filed a police complaint on November 4 alleging that Chakrabarty did not take permission before installing one of the plaques in front of the prayer hall although the land belongs to the Trust.
“According to the original deed signed by Maharshi Dedendranath, the Trust is the sole owner of 15.3 acres in Santiniketan’s core area, a part of which is covered by the university. Not even members of the Tagore family can sell or rent out this land, the deed specifies. The Trust pays the tax to the government,” its secretary, 76-year-old Anil Konar, told HT.
Visva-Bharati filed a counter-complaint with the police on November 6, saying Konar filed the complaint “with an ulterior motive of defaming the vice-chancellor and the university.
Visva-Bharati’s complaint letter to the police also said that the university and the Trust are so closely related that separate permission was not required at all.
HT has reviewed both complaints.
“With Chakrabarty’s exit, we hope these police cases will end in an amicable settlement,” a Visva-Bharati official said on condition of anonymity.
Visva-Bharati spokesperson Mahua Banerjee told the media in October that the plaques were put up temporarily and permanent ones would be installed once Visva-Bharati gets the text from UNESCO and the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).
However, a statement Visva-Bharati issued on Monday ahead of Chakrabarty’s retirement, countered the criticism around the plaques.
“No matter how much the followers of Rabindranath may shout, nobody can change the fact that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the current chancellor and Bidyut Chakrabarty is the vice-chancellor. Isn’t it foolish to claim that these two names on the plaque are irrelevant?” it said.
On Tuesday, Chakrabarty also wrote a five-page open letter to chief minister Mamata Banerjee that made sarcastic remarks about her writings and paintings and took swipes at her party. Within hours, Pralay Nayek, a professor from Hooghly district and a former Visva-Bharati student, filed a complaint against Chakrabarty with Santiniketan police.
