Visva-Bharati VC Chakrabarty's Letter to Mamata Sparks Controversy

Senior Trinamul leaders claim that Visva-Bharati vice-chancellor Bidyut Chakrabarty's four-page letter to Mamata Banerjee on Sunday was intended to launch a political onslaught against the chief minister. This has sparked yet another round of controversy.

In his third letter to Mamata in as many months, Chakrabarty demanded the restoration of a 2.9 kilometer road that her administration had taken from the central university in 2021 after some residents of Santiniketan accused varsity officials of preventing them from using it.

Despite the same demand, Chakrabarty's third letter to the chief minister was seen by many as different from his other ones because it brought up concerns such as corruption and the arrests of her cabinet colleagues and close aides in suspected scams.

Chakrabarty stated, "Two of your senior ministers are in gaol; some of your trusted aides (even from Birbhum) in jail, including in Tihar jail in Delhi...," adding that "your government-appointed" VC was imprisoned on allegations of using funds improperly in exchange for employment.

Chakrabarty, according to a source, highlighted the arrests of ministers Partha Chatterjee (in the alleged school recruitment scam) and Jyoti Priya Mallick (in the alleged ration scam), Anubrata Mondal, the chief of the Trinamul Birbhum unit (in an alleged multi-crore cattle-rustling scam), and Subires Bhattacharyya, the former VC of NBU.

Without mentioning her by name, Chakrabarty also brought up Mahua Moitra, the Krishnagar MP for Trinamul. He stated, alluding to the cash-for-query controversy, "Your most vocal member of Parliament is being charged with activities which have already drawn the parliamentary ethics committee to examine the issue."

The general secretary of Trinamul state, Kunal Ghosh, answered sharply. "It is clear from the letter why he (the VC) left Rabindranath Tagore off of the plaques for the Unesco heritage tags. The letter appears to have been written by a low-level BJP cadre, hence it cannot be from the president of a central university," he stated.

According to some university administrators, Chakrabarty's aggressive behavior stems from her ultimatum to take down the plaques that solely named Prime Minister Narendra Modi (in his capacity as chancellor) and Chakrabarty, leaving out Nobel laureate and founder of Visva-Bharati Rabindranath Tagore.

Trinamul began a protest last week outside the campus because the plaques had not been changed.

"We need to follow the ASI (Archaeological Survey of India) instructions while preparing the plaque and we are doing so, the result of which will soon be visible," Chakrabarty continued. "Unesco declared Santiniketan as a World Heritage Site."

On Monday, Mamata disseminated a statement criticizing the plaques devoid of Tagore's name among select media. "A harsh and haughty demonstration of self-absorbed narcissism persists in what used to be the Gurudev's residence," she exclaimed. Even though Santiniketan is recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, the current local headman nevertheless proudly displays his own small name in memorial sculptures! Please take down the derogatory plaques that have erased Rabindranath Tagore's name from the front of the organization that the poet laboriously created! Please be humble and dignified! The Delhi ruling regime needs to move immediately to make amends."

Regarding the plaque issue, prominent Bengal BJP leaders Suvendu Adhikari and Anupam Hazra did not support Chakrabarty.

Chakrabarty's letter, according to a prominent university lecturer, was an attempt to appease "his bosses in Delhi," a reference to the saffron rule. "His tenure expires on November 8, and Delhi has not provided any information regarding an extension. He went in a different direction to appease his superiors in Delhi because the plaque row was not well received, not even by BJP leaders."