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Visva-Bharati seeks Calcutta high court’s intervention to end students’ protest
The central university in its petition told the court that security on campus has been breached by the student agitation that started on August 28 against expulsion of three students on disciplinary ground
Kolkata: Authorities of the West Bengal’s Visva-Bharati University on Wednesday filed a petition before the Calcutta high court seeking intervention in clearing the impasse created by an agitation against expulsion of three students on disciplinary ground, people aware of the development said.
The petition is likely to be heard later this week.
Visva-Bharati, whose chancellor is the Prime Minister, did not make any official statement. However, lawyers aware of the development said the state’s only central university – which was set up by Rabindranath Tagore at Bolpur in Birbhum district in 1921 – in its petition said that security on campus has been breached by the student agitation that started on August 28.
Since then, vice-chancellor Bidyut Chakrabarty has been confined to his on-campus residence. Members of the Students Federation of India (SFI), the students’ wing of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), have blocked the gates.
The agitators have been sending food items and vegetables for the VC and his family for four days, but he refused to accept these. After Chakraborty lodged a police complaint on August 30, four constables and a sub-inspector were deployed outside his home. On Wednesday, the VC ordered food online.
“The VC made a false accusation before some staff members that we are not allowing him to buy food. We have been supplying food thrice a day so that he does not face any inconvenience,” said Rupa Chakraborty, one of the agitating students.
Aishe Ghosh, the students’ union president at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) led the agitation on Tuesday. The students’ wing of the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) will start a parallel movement on Thursday.
The three students, who were suspended in January last year, also took part in agitations against several actions taken by Chakrabarty and visits by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders such as Rajya Sabha member Swapan Dasgupta in 2020 and Union home minister Amit Shah before the March-April assembly polls in the state.
Demanding Chakrabarty’s removal, Aishe Ghosh said, “He is acting on behalf of the Rashtriya Shayamsevak Sangh (RSS) that wants to establish control over several universities. They tried the same in JNU.”
The BJP state leadership on Wednesday reacted to anti-RSS posters put up on the campus.
“How can the RSS, which has nothing to do with Visva Bharati, be dragged into this? The VC cannot be harassed in this manner because he expressed his independent opinions,” said Bengal BJP chief spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya.
The central university has temporarily suspended the admission process and publication of results, confirming that the VC is “under siege” due to the ongoing agitation by a section of students.
In January last year, there was a protest by students when Swapan Dasgupta was invited by the authorities to speak on the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) at a seminar.
A month after the incident, Chakrabarty triggered a controversy by saying that those who gather at Delhi’s Rajghat donning white caps on Gandhi Jayanti are “the country’s biggest thieves.”
A section of faculty and staff members are also unhappy with the VC as disciplinary action and suspension orders have been passed against many of them over the past two years.
